


The Ghost of Camp Campbell

by Gh0st_Writer



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Be gentle, Child Murder, Eventual Dadvid, Gen, Ghost David, Ghosts can age, I wrote this fic because I couldn't find a Ghost David AU, Jasper lives but David dies AU, Murder, Mystery, Supernatural Elements, Swearing, Tags May Change, dadvid, figured i'd share, first fanfic, ghost Dadvid, sue me, the other campers are there too, they just aren't mention that much
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-16 12:43:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14811593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gh0st_Writer/pseuds/Gh0st_Writer
Summary: [English is not my native language, so I apologise if the grammar is all over the place or looks off]Of all the shitty summer camps Max has been dump to over the years, Camp Campbell takes the cake. The two camp counselors don't know what they are doing, the quartermaster is an enigma all on his own, and the owner? When he isn't burning evidence he's always looking over his shoulder. Max stop giving a damn as soon as he set foot on campgrounds, but there is one person who manages to get under his skin. A mysterious and happy-go-lucky third counselor, who only seem to appear at night and always catches Max and his friends before they manage to escape camp. There are some dark secrets hiding in Camp Campbell, and Max is determined to get to the bottom of it.





	1. Welcome to camp

As soon as Max saw the sign "Welcome to Camp Campbell" come into view, he wanted to throw-up. He hated summer camps with a passion, and never saw what was enjoyable about them. What was fun about being dump into a bear infested forest a billion miles away from anywhere with a working toilet, all the while getting eaten alive by blood sucking parasites and doing the same boring camp activities. Max has seen it all before, and Camp Campbell was no different. He thought about hiding under the seat until the bus returned to sweet, sweet civilization, but the old man driving the thing is..... fucking creepy to put it nicely. Who, in this goddamn day and age, gets a hook for a hand!? An actual fucking hook? There's plenty of other choices, but he went with the one that is specifically used to stab things. Max took a deep breath and let out a long sigh and slid down into the bus seat as far as he could go. "Fucking kill me." he muttered, as the bus rolled to a stop. The driver manage to open the doors with ease despite the hook hand.

"Kids are here." the old man grunted in a low, quiet voice. Max heard the other kids get up to leave. He almost forgot that he wasn't the only one on the bus, he spent the entire ride tuning them out after he heard the words "love" and "camp" being said too close together for his liking. Max couldn't wait to see their hopes and dreams crushed. Seeing as there was no point in delaying any longer, Max got up. He join the group of children outside and shuffled his way to the front. He wanted to see first-hand what this garbage dump of a camp looks like. However in front of him, two camp counselors were blocking his view of his future prison.

"Howdy campers!" beamed the blond man, "I'm counselor Jasper, and this is my co- counselor, Gwen!" he gesture to the young woman next to him. Jasper continued " We're here to make sure you have a radical time here at Camp Campbell! Now if you dawgs would just follow me to the mess hall, we'll do a short orientation and then give a proper tour of the camp!"

Max cringed a little at the use outdated words. The last thing he wants is an adult trying to relate to him using outdated slang that died off for a reason. With a disgruntled look, he followed the others towards the main camp building. Max couldn't help himself looking back towards the bus one last time, he won't be seeing that glorious yellow transport vehicle until summer camp ends to bring him home. Max was ready to let out a sad sigh, until he saw the old creepy man get off the bus. The driver somehow manage to change his hook bearing hand with one holding a bottle of some kind, and just walk off into the woods.

Max could not believe his luck. The doors to freedom were open and unguarded. Best of all, the old coot didn't take the keys out of the ignition, as the engine was still sputtering. A beautiful plan started to brew in Max's head, but he would need to act fast. He hurried on over to the others at the mess hall as to not look to suspicious. Once everyone was inside, Gwen rolled out an old TV set. 

"Alright my little homies!" Jasper exclaimed with a little too much cheer, "It'll take some time to set up the old tube, but in the meantime, how about we all introdu-"

And Max tuned him out. He made sure to sit in the back as to be nearest to the door but couldn't figure out how to open them without being seen.

"What the hell is this?" whispered the curly brown haired boy next to Max, "This doesn't look anything at all like the brochure..."

This got Max's attention." What do you mean it doesn't look like the brochure, it's shitty summer camp, what did you expect?" he hissed back at the boy.

"I mean," the boy said while retrieving his brochure from his pants pocket, "this doesn't look anything at all like a science camp." Max glance at the small paper advertisement on the table, it promised a state of the art science lab, the best AC system money can buy and lots of fun explosive chemicals that should definitely not be near children. All of this and more at Camp Campbell...science camp? That's..... weird, Max thought.

"Science camp?!" a voice whispered next to Max's ear, nearly making him jump out of his seat and grab the table for balance. He spun around to see a small, green haired girl with the biggest smile plastered on her face. "This is clearly adventure camp!" she whispered in an excited voice. Her hand disappeared in her red overall pocket for a bit, then reappeared with a dirty looking brochure. "See!" she exclaimed. Max didn't bother reading over the false promises, but stared at the big bold letters of Camp Campbell adventure camp. Max let out a groan, "Great..." he mumbled, " Not only is this a shitty summer camp, it's a fucking scam."

"Scam?!" the boy stammered,"W-what gave you that idea"

"Look, euhh.." Max started.

"Neil"

"Look, Neil, of all the kids in this room, do any of them look like they signed up for the same camp?"

Neil scan the mess hall, and had to admit that the boy next to him was right. No one here looked like they were going to a science camp. He doubted that a magician kid, a skater girl and an astronaut boy would want to experience the joys a mixing chemicals together. Neil grit his teeth together, "Fuck, it is scam." he said under his breath, "I gotta get out of here."

"What did you say?" whispered Max.

"I said, I need to get out of here!" Neil repeated in a hushed voice. "I don't want to spend my summer actually being....outdoors!"

Max grinned, "Well Neil, I just so happens to be thinking of an escape plan out of this fucking dump."

"W-what, for real? What is it?"

"The bus," Max whispered while looking around, making sure no unwanted ears could listen in. "The old bastard driving it left for a break, and didn't take the key out of the ignition! If we can sneak out of here without getting caught, we can drive our way to freedom!"

"T-that's amazing! But what can we do as a dis-"

"You guys need a distraction?". This time, Neil jumped. It was the green haired girl again, and she somehow was standing behind him.

"H-how did you..." stuttered Neil.

"Doesn't matter" dimmising Neil with a wave of her hand, "Point is, you need someone with my set of skills to cause the perfect distraction." She looked at the both of them with determined eyes, as to somehow convince them using pure willpower alone.

"Well, what can you do?" asked Max, with a grin on his face. With two people to ready help him escape out of this shithole, he might actually have a chance!

"You just let old Nikki handle that. Just be ready for my signal!" And with that, Nikki slipped under the table and disappeared.

"Wait! What signal!" Neil hissed, but she was already long gone. The boys would just have to wait and see.

"Thank you Nerris, for that... really long explanation on proper elven dialect and grammar" sighed Jasper," I'll be sure to use the proper elvish next time..." He turned to Gwen, who was now is the process of hitting the TV. "What gives Gwen? Shouldn't it be working by now?" he asked.

"Hey man," snapped Gwen, "I'm dealing with technology that's as old as me right now, just be glad that it's somehow still working." She returned her attention to hitting the infernal box at just the right spot to revive the old machine. "Can't believe Campbell is too cheap to invest in a proper TV or even a DVD player..." Gwen mumbled to herself.

Jasper ignored her quiet swearing and decided to continue on with the introductions. Before he could continue down the row of kids, Nikki's hand shot up from the center of the group.

"Oh! Did you want you go next?" said Jasper, hoping that is wouldn't turn into another lecture.

"Actually, I was wondering if you can sing us a camp song." smiled Nikki, mischievously. "You know, to get us into that camping spirit!"

The request surprised Jasper. Usually, campers never asked for camp songs, let alone begged for them on day one. "Oh...I don't know...maybe after i can.."

"Awwww...pretty please?" insisted Nikki, giving Jasper a puppy dog look for extra insurance.

Jasper couldn't resist. After all, how can he say no to such a sweet little girl? "Well..I-I mean... I guess it wouldn't hurt to break the flow with a short music break" 

Jasper fetched his guitar. As soon as his fingers strummed the cords, Nikki, Max, and Neil were out of the Mess Hall and running for freedom.

\---

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Max screamed as the trio bolted towards the vehicle. He stumbled on the bus and dove into the driver's seat. His hands gripping the wheel with so with much force that his knuckles were already turning white.

"By the way, I never got your name." Neil gasped, physical exercise not being his strongest trait.

"It's Max," he replied, trying to stretch his leg to reach the pedals but with no luck and swore under his breath. "Neil, you keep watch in case someone comes out, Nikki, I need your help to work the gas pedal."

"Aye Aye, Captain!" saluted Nikki, and ducked under the wheel. She gave each a test push, and finally slam her weight on the gas paddle. The engines roared to life.

But the bus didn't move.

"What the fuck? Why aren't we moving?" yelled Max, his frustration getting the better of him. Their ticket to freedom slowly slipping away.

"Euh...Guys?" Neil stammered, Max glanced at the side window, and saw Gwen and Jasper out of the mess hall. The screaming engines alerted everyone in the camp and now the counselors were running towards them. Theirs yells being drowned out by the noise.

"God fucking damn it!"hissed Max, "Why won't this thing fucking move!" He kicked the the gear shift out of anger, setting to it drive. The bus lurched forward, nearly sending the trio flying. Max recovered first and tried to keep the vehicle as straight as possible on the old dirt road.

"Holy shit!" gasped Neil, getting up from behind a seat. "We're actually going to make it!"

Max's grin was getting wider by the second, pure adrenaline pumping in his veins. All they needed to do was reach the highway, and they were homefree. Nothing could stop them now.

Suddenly, the wheel jerked violently to the right, making Max tumble out of the driver's seat.

"OW! What the fu-" Max's eyes went wide with fear. The bus was swerving out of control, and if he didn't do anything it would crash and they would.... wait a minute, Max thought. As he was gripping the seat for balance, he saw the steering wheel swerve madly to the left, then to the right and stabilizing itself at the center...almost as if someone was driving it. 

Max snapped out of it, there would be plenty of time to question what just happened when they were out of this shithole. He lunged towards the wheel and tried to regain control but it wouldn't move an inch.

Max noticed another very concerning problem. 

The bus started to slow down.

"Nikki! What gives?" Max demanded, as he peaked under the wheel.

"It's the stupid gas peddle Max! I can't push it down anymore!" Nikki replied, she demonstrated by throwing her body on it a couple of times, and it too refuse to move "See?"

Max was about to reply, but his eyes caught some movement besides Nikki.

It was the brake pedal, and it was slowly going down to the floor.

The bus slowed down, and stopped. Max shot up from his seat when he heard the gear shift being moved. He stared with wide eyes and he saw the thing move its way down to "P", and finally, he heard the engines turning off.

"Okay, what the fuck just happened?" exclaimed Max in complete disbelief.

"You tell me..." muttered a green looking Neil, the swinging bus gave him a bad case of car sickness.

"The fucking bus parked itself Neil, I don't know how else to explain it!"

Nikki poked her head from behind Max, "Yeah! It was like a ghost was driving it!"

Max was about to retort as soon as Nikki said the word ghost. He was too old to believe in such childish notions. But, he felt an unnatural sensation on the back of his neck, almost like…

Something was watching him.

It send shivers down his spine, and his mind was suddenly filled with dread. His own conscience was begging him to stay put…

Or else.

Max shook the feeling away, everything supernatural has a reasonable explanation, he reminded himself. "Whatever, we can still make it to the highway if we run, then maybe we can hide in the woods or hitch a ride, or something." Max pushed the mechanism to open the bus doors, and he made his way down the steps.

The doors slammed shut in front of Max's face. 

"Holy fuck!" he yelled, "The damn thing almost took my nose off!" He spun around, prepared to shoot a vicious glare at whoever thought it would be funny to do that, but Nikki and Neil were to far away to be able to shut the doors.

"M-Max, the t-thing...." stuttered Neil, pointing a shaky finger at the door mechanism, "It m-moved on its own!"

"Cool!" Nikki gasped, " This is totally a haunted bus!"

Max rolled his eyes, "No Nikki it's not some dumb supernatural bullshit, it's properly some spring loaded thing that keeps the door shut. Now help me push it into place again."

The trio took hold of the handle, but no matter what they did, it would not budge.

"Fuck it" Max threw his hands in the air, "We can still use the.....oh" as he turned around he spotted Gwen at the door, hand on her hips. "Well, at least she can't get-" A squeak interrupted Max. He turn to see the mechanism move on its own again.

The damn thing was opening the door for her!

He was ready to chalk down all the other things as bad luck or even just the fact he didn’t have the knowledge to drive a car, let alone a bus. But this....was a little too much. It would be something to investigate later. For now, there was an angry camp counselor in front of him.

"You three, are in so much trouble."


	2. Close encounter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the support! I went and touched up Chapter 1 a bit, (so embarrassing catching the errors after it's been posted lol) and I hope you enjoy chapter 2.

Max, Nikki, and Neil all fell into their cots, exhausted after the long day. Gwen gave them quite the talking too, and wanted to punish the trio with dishes duty for the rest of summer. Thankfully, Jasper negotiated it down to a week on the basis of, yes they needed to be punish but they are just kids and they should still have fun at a summer camp. Max came to appreciate that after diner, he wasn’t sure if he could last a week with the Quartermaster, as he was lovingly called, watching them clean the dishes. 

He wiggled out of his hoodie and hid under his blankets. He just wanted to sleep after everything that happened. The silence lasted only for a minute, as Neil spoke up in the dark.

“So…. Are we gonna talk about the weird thing that happened on the bus today or…..”

Nikki sprung from her bed with renewed vigor, “Yeah! What the heck was that?”

“I’m trying to fucking sleep guys.” Max grumbled out, be he knew that it was worthless.

“Oh come on Max,” Neil said as he was sitting up, “ You’re not at least a little bit concerned about the whole thing?”

“I say, a ghost did all that.” said Nikki with a bit too much determination for Max’s taste. It was his turn to sit up from his cot.

“No Nikki, it’s not a ghost, because they’re not fucking real.”

“Well, how else to you explain everything that happened mister, I-don’t-believe-in-the-ghosts-or-fun?”

“I-I don’t know…” he hesitate, “It probably has a self parking feature that we didn’t see.” Max slam his head on his pillow, “There, problem fucking solved.” 

“Max,” interjected Neil, “that bus is way too old to have any self parking, hell, I don’t even think they added those to modern buses.”

Max shut his eyes and let out a sigh, “ I know, Neil. I’m just too...tired to think about today. Whatever it is, it’s not some dumb ghost bullshit.” he said as he pointed angrily at Nikki.

Neil couldn’t help but get curious. “Why do you think it’s a ghost anyway?” he asked. He was a skeptic on the subject, but would gladly believe in them if proving their existence meant getting some scientific recognition.

Nikki’s smile grew wide, “Because, while on the bus,” she explained with glee, “I had this really weird tingly feeling on the back of my neck, like something was watching me.”

Max eyes shot open, “What?”

“Yeah! And then I had this really weird feeling all the sudden, like I wanted to run away but couldn’t.”

Max started to sweat a little, this has got to be a coincidence, right? That they just happened to get the cold feeling of something watching them with the uneasy feeling of dread. To Max surprise, Neil spoke up. “D-did you also heard this...voice? Telling you to not move?”

A voice? Max didn’t remember hearing a voice, but he did recall having thoughts in his head that weren't his own. Telling him to not leave the bus.

“You too?” gasped Nikki, she turned to look at Max with excited eyes. “Max did you-”

“I may have felt some...things,” admitted Max. “but it’s not a fucking ghost Nikki.”

“Au contraire Max! This proves that it’s a spirit from beyond!”

“How are you so sure?” questioned Neil.

“All those ghost hunting show describe the same thing when an entity is present.”

Max was unimpressed, and mentally cursed at himself for actually maybe believing that the incident was supernatural in nature. “Ghost hunting shows are nothing but scams. They prey on weak, dumb people and get a kick out of scaring themselves shitless at shadows. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m fucking tired and would like to sleep off this shitstain of a day.” grumbled Max, hiding under his blankets once more.

“What if I can prove it?” said Nikki as she went to lay down, “Like, actually give physical prove that this ghost exist for real.”

“If you somehow do that, I would eat my fucking hoodie.”

“Cool.” she whispered, as she shut her eyes. She couldn’t wait to start looking for clues tomorrow. Maybe she could even get Neil to help her! Soon the trio fell into a deep sleep, exhaustion getting the better of them.

\---

The past couple of days have been… chaotic to say the least. The bus left during the night of the incident, so Nikki had to look elsewhere for ghost proof. Unfortunately, that meant she got into places that Gwen and Jasper didn’t think it was physically possible for her to get too. Max use that to his advantage, scoping out the entire camp for future escape routes. It was then when Max noticed how degraded the camp looked. The other camps that he has been to at least made an attempt to look like they had a proper budget.. Camp Campbell on the other hand, didn’t even bother trying to hide that fact. The campers area was filled with makeshift booths and platforms made from scrap wood, ropes and other things that would give a health inspector nightmares. Max filed those away for future blackmail in case he does escape from this hell camp. For now, a distraction was needed for him to go explore the beach, and he knew exactly who to use. He needed to convince a certain willing camper, about the importance of zero-g training.

Later that night, the trio sneaked out of their tent, and headed to the beach. 

While Gwen and Jasper were busy trying to free Space Kid from a washing machine that afternoon, the trio ran towards the beach during the chaos. There, they discovered a single boat attached to the pier with a pair of oars tucked away inside. A plan easily hatched in Max’s mind, if a loud bus couldn't get them out, maybe a quiet rowboat will. The best part, it can’t possibly malfunction like the bus did. 

Under cover of darkness and being guided by Neil’s flashlight, the kids made it to the pier. Max and Nikki tangled with the knot, holding their getaway boat hostage and Neil carefully hopped in. He waved his flashlight around to look for the oars, but they were nowhere to be found.

“Eeuuuuh.. Guys? The oars… they’re gone.” whispered Neil.

“What?!” Max hissed. He let go of a piece of rope that Nikki was biting in an weird attempt to cut it, and swiped the flashlight out of Neil’s hands. He looked around the small boat but his search also turned out nothing. “What the...Did someone take them?”

“I don’t know...Maybe Jasper or Gwen retrieved them?” replied a dejected Neil. He was looking forward to not be in the bug infested woods anymore.

“I...Maybe? But we made sure no one saw us!” 

“I bet it was the-” began Nikki.

“Oh my god, Nikki, Shut up!” interrupted Max, letting his temper run wild. “For the last fucking time, it’s not a fucking ghost!”

“Oh yeah?” sneered Nikki, letting go of the chewed piece of rope. “Then how to you explain that?” She pointed at the flashlight Max was holding.

It was flickering, like it didn’t have enough energy to stay on anymore.

“Dying battery” shrugged Max, it was easy enough to explain. He didn’t know why Nikki would think it would be anything else.

“What? No!” cried Neil, taking his flashlight back, “I just put a fresh pair of batteries this morning! They can’t be dead yet!” He gave it a couple of wacks to try and persuade the light to return.

Instead, it went out, drowning the kids in total darkness. 

“Fan-fucking-tastic.” sighed Max, his eyes has yet to adjust to the sudden blackness. "Let’s just check the storage shed behind the Mess Hall, it’s the only place they could have put-”

“Are you looking for something?” said a cheerful, male voice.

It made the trio jump. Max couldn't believe how fast they have been caught! He spun around to quickly give Jasper a weak excuse, but…

It wasn’t Jasper.

The young man standing before them wore the camp counselors uniform with a yellow handkerchief around his neck, but Max didn’t recognized him at all. “Wh-who the fuck are you?” he stammered out, unable to hide his uneasiness. How was that guy able to sneak up on the three of them?

“Hey….language!” warned the red haired man, green eyes giving the trio a disappointed look. “Honestly Max, I really don’t approve of such awful words! Especially when it’s directed to one of your camp counselors!”

The awful feeling of dread hit Max like a tidal wave. Every inch of his body screamed at him to run, to do anything to put some distance between this counselor and him…

But he didn’t know why.

Max couldn't pin point it exactly, but something about that man was...off. Like if he didn't focus his vision enough on the stranger, he might disappear. Maybe his eyes are just screwing with him.

On closer inspection, the stranger looked harmless enough. Besides, Max thought, he looks pretty wimpy! So why was he so terrified? It finally dawned on Max that this...mystery counselor, knew his name. How could he know that? This is the first time he has seen him! Was he given a list of everyone here? “How do you know my name?” asked Max, he hoped the man would give him a proper answer.

The counselor smiled. 

“I know all of my campers name, Max.” he chuckled, “I was there during orientation day!”

Max turned to Nikki and Neil. They were all giving each other quizzical looks. The trio don’t recall ever seeing this man at all during that day.

“But that doesn’t matter,” the mysterious counselor continued. He took a more sad and serious tone. “You three were planning on escaping again, weren’t you?” 

Max didn’t know how to answer, fear getting the better of him. His eyes finally adjusted to the dark, and he could see now that the stranger was holding the missing oars in his hand. When did he get those?

As if reading his mind, the stranger looked at the oars, then back to Max with a smile.

Max was starting to hate that smile.

“I took the liberty of confiscating the oars!” explained the mystery counselor, “You kids really shouldn’t be out on the water at night, especially without proper training and supervision! You can get seriously hurt!” 

“But...how?” stammered Max, finally breaking free from the silent curse, “How did you know we would be escaping tonight?”

The mystery counselor laughed, and Max regretted opening his mouth.

“I was there, silly!” chuckled the stranger, “ I followed you three when you were sneaking away from the group. I overheard Max making plans, and thought it be best to take the oars away.”

This time, Nikki spoke up, “ But...we were whispering at each other… How did you hear us all the way from the woods?”

“Oh, I wasn’t hiding in the woods, Nikki.” said the mystery counselor, “I was standing next to Max! Honestly! I’m surprise none of you noticed me!”

Max had enough. He wanted out and wanted to be as far away from this creep and his creepy as fuck answers.

“That’s it!” exclaimed Max, throwing his hands in defeat, “I’m going to bed.”

He didn’t even wait for the mystery counselor to move out of the way. After spending most of the day getting hyped up for their escape and getting caught by this creep, he just wanted to go to bed and forget this day ever happened. Neil and Nikki soon followed, not wanting to be left alone with the oar wielding stranger.

“I’ll escort you!” he chimed, catching up to them, “Can’t have my campers getting hurt in the dark now, right?”

He laughed again, getting on Max’s nerve. He knew the man was just making sure they were heading towards their tent and not anywhere else.

 

Once they arrived, the mystery counselor pulled the tent flap open for the trio. “Now, I hope this means there won’t be anymore escape attempts.” sighed the stranger, “I really rather not have to tell Gwen and Jasper about this, they have enough on their plates already!”

Neil and Nikki hurried inside, but Max turn to glare at the mystery counselor. Suddenly, he grabbed the stranger by his shirt and pulled him down so that they were face to face. Anger being the driving force now instead of fear. “Listen here you creepy fuck,” hissed Max, “I don’t know what your fucking name is and I don’t fucking care, but know this,” he pulled the stranger closer, almost headbutting him in the process, “we will never stop trying to escape this shithole. What happened back there, at the beach? That was a fucking fluke. You may catch us next time, and the time after that, but you can’t keep that shit up forever. I will learn your weakness and exploit the fuck out of it so we can reach the gates to freedom. I will fucking break you, camp man, and I’ll be the one who gets the last laugh.”

Max was panting a little. A grin slowly formed on his face, as he finally manage to let out what he has been bottling up since the encounter at the pier. The stranger just stared at Max in a complete state of shock.

Then his features relax, and he smiled.

“Awww Max, did you forget my name already?”. He laughed as he ruffled Max’s hair before the he could react. “Now, off to bed kiddo. Jasper is planning a surprise tomorrow morning, and you need a good night’s sleep.” said the mystery counselor. 

“Wha- didn’t you hear what I just said?” Max exclaimed. He couldn’t believe his rebellious threat was being brushed off. Gripping the man's shirt even tighter.

“I did…” sighed the stranger, “But honestly, I’m just happy that you found something that you are so passionate about here at camp!” he wiped away a happy tear from his eyes. “And with friends too!” he continued, “It just means that I have to work twice as hard to keep you guys safe here at Camp Campbell!” 

He gently grabbed Max’s hands and unhooked him from his now stretched out shirt. “Have a good night, Max! I have a lot of work to do before morning.” The mystery counselor got up and headed towards the dark woods, but stopped before he could enter them. “Oh, Max!” he suddenly exclaimed, “For your next escape plan, could you maybe hold off on using cars? I don’t think my heart can handle parking an other runaway bus again.” he smiled one last time, and disappeared into the woods.

“What the fuck did you just say?” hissed Max, trying his hardest not to scream. He heard a distant, “Language!” from the forest, but nothing else. Max stood there for a moment, trying his hardest to process the whole thing. 

He wasn’t a… 

No… because that’s stupid. 

But, he did looked off… 

No, no, that was because the bastard sca- I mean, surprise you. That is all. 

But his hands were cold...like, really co-

No! It’s a cold summer night! The fucker works in the woods in the dark like the creep that he is! He’s bound to have cold hands.

But… 

How did he know about the bus park-

Jesus fucking Christ, Max. He’s just some sick fuck, who probably enjoy pretending he’s psychic, and traumatizing campers at night. Hell, I could fucking use this as blackmail too, Max finished by thinking. Who would want to go to a summer camp with an actual psychopath in the woods roaming at night.

Satisfied with his line of reasoning, he went into his tent. Max ignored the concerned look of Nikki and Neil, and jumped right into bed. Suddenly the flashlight regained its power, illuminating the whole tent and nearly blinding Neil in the process. Max could feel the tension.

“Max?” whispered Nikki.

“No.” answered Max harshly. He was done. He didn't want to reignite the ghost talk. He just wanted to sleep. Whatever questions they had would have to wait until tomorrow. Because Jasper, apparently, had a surprise for them. 

Max prayed to god that the mystery counselor was wrong.


	3. New Fears and Old Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this chapter done since forever ago, I just wanted to wait until I was back home to my computer to post this. Enjoy!

It was a fucking hike.

That was the surprise.

A fucking hike in the fucking woods.

Jasper woke everyone up at six in the morning, and gathered the campers at the mess hall. “Today we’re going on a radical hike around Camp Campbell most awesome scenic trail!” Jasper beamed, “The hike will take about half a day to finish, so I hope you homies got your hiking legs ready!” 

No one shared Jasper enthusiasm for the activity. Tired groans and mumbling was heard throughout the group. Max thought about sneaking away, but after last night, he wasn’t sure if he was ready to run into mysterious third counselor again. Neil and Nikki joined him as they headed off into the woods.

“So,” whispered Neil, “are you ready to talk now?”

Max sighed, “Could we not, I’m really not in the mood for this…”

“Not in the mood?!” hissed Neil, “Max, that guy last night…”

“I swear to fucking god Neil, if you’re about to say what I think you’re about to say, I will fucking punch you.”

“Alright! Alright!” exclaimed Neil, raising his hands in self-defense. “No need to get so violent…” he muttered.

“Don’t worry about him, Neil. Max just doesn’t want to admit that the g-word exists.” teased Nikki. She was enjoying this. Sure, last night was a terrifying experience for all of them, but now she was filled with even more determination to hunt for ghost evidence this morning.

“You know what Nikki?” snapped Max, his tolerance for the supernatural bullshit being low. He didn’t want to admit that he stayed up most of the night, thinking about the encounter. “I’m going to prove you wrong.”

“Oh? And how are you gonna do that?” grinned Nikki.

“Easy, I’ll go ask Jasper.”

“What?” the answer caught Nikki off guard. She expected some sort of plan that would cause some good old fashion mayhem at camp.

“Think about it! That guy last night said that he knew Gwen and Jasper, so we just need to ask them if they know him.” said Max.

“Max,” sighed Neil, ”he could have been lying or-”

“No! No! Don’t you dare start that shit Neil.” hissed Max, “I can’t believe how willing you guys are to believe in this crap!”. He shoved his hands in his pockets and made a beeline towards the front of the hiking group.

“Where are you going?” cried Neil.

“Proving, once and for all, that ghosts don't fucking exists.” yelled Max. He was a man...or boy, on a mission. Neil and Nikki looked at each other, and continued their walk in silence for a few moments.

“He’s in denial, isn’t he?” whispered Nikki.

“Oh yeah.” said Neil.

\---

Max shoved his way to the front of the hiking line, ignoring the cries of complaint from the other campers. He needed to convince his friends, but mostly himself, about this. There has to be a reasonable explanation for the...events last night. He refused to believe that it was otherworldly in nature. Only stupid adults and gullible children believed in ghosts. He made it to Jasper and tried to keep up with his stride. “Sooo...Jasper.” Max started.

Jasper jumped a little. “Oh! Howdy Max! I didn’t expect you to be there! Enjoying the hike?”

“Yeah, sure… Listen. How many..euh..people work at this camp?”

“That’s weird…” laughed Jasper, nervously. “Why do you want to know? You’re not planning to-”

“Just answer the question, it’s important.” interrupted Max.

“Well... there’s Gwen and I, the Quartermaster...and sometime Mister Campbell visits the Camp every few weeks.”

Max’s brow furrowed, “How does this Campbell guy look like?” he asked. Maybe this was the stranger from last night. Odd that Jasper called him Mister though, they look about the same age. 

“Wait…you’ve never heard about the great Cameron Campbell?” gasped Jasper, excitement sparking in his blue eyes. “Why, he’s only the most radical, most awesome outdoorsmen ever!”

“Alright, great, cool...but I just want to know how he looks like.” pleaded Max.

“Well...He’s pretty up there in years, he doesn’t look like he did back in his heyday when I was a camper here.”

“When you were a camper here?” echoed Max, uneasily.

“Oh yes! He may have grey hair now, but he could probably take on a bear or two still.”

Shit, Max thought, Cameron Campbell’s description was nowhere near how the mystery counselor looked like. Campbell was an old man who could, apparently, wrestle bears for shits and giggles. The stranger looked more like a match with his red hair and twiggy limbs. Bears would use this guy as a toothpick. A worried expression washed over Max’s face. Skinny guy or not, this meant that there was an imposter, or worse, at camp. “Fuck.” he muttered under his breath, but it was just loud enough for Jasper to hear.

“Whoa there Max! What’s up with that language?” asked Jasper. He then noticed the look on Max’s face. The camper was deep in thought and barely paying attention to the path. What could have caused the troublemaker to pull such a look? It was like he was scared about something. Is that why he ask that odd question earlier? “Hey Max…” he whispered just loud enough for Max to hear, and not draw the attention of the other campers. “Is there something troubling you?”

“It’s..” Max began, but stopped. Should he tell Jasper? He thought of using the stranger as a form of blackmail on Camp Campbell, but his heart wasn’t into it anymore. Maybe the encounter from last night was finally setting in. He didn’t know what was worse, the stranger being a crazy psychopath hiding in the woods, or a ghost haunting the campgrounds. Max was starting to regret watching all the horror movies now. Will he get dragged from his tent and chopped into pieces? Or will he get possessed and start speaking in tongues while levitating five feet in the air. Both were unpleasant in their own special way. He figured he should at least tell Jasper. If he figured out something was troubling him, anyone could. “I’ll tell you later...in private.” Max responded weakly. He didn’t want to look like he was actually scared, he had a reputation to keep!

Jasper smiled, “No problem, my little homeslice. After today’s activities are over, you’re welcome to pop in over to the counselors cabin.” 

Max cringed a little, then let out a sigh of relief. Deep down, he was grateful to able to tell one adult in charge, but he would be damned to let that show. He started to slow his walking pace down to let the other campers overtake him so he could join Nikki and Neil, but Jasper stopped when there was a clearing in the woods. 

“Now will you look at that view!” exclaimed Jasper, “You can see the whole of Lake Lilac! And over there!” he pointed, “You can even see our camp!”

“And our beds…” one of the campers muttered, but Jasper ignored them. Max stood at the edge of the clearing. The scenery didn’t do much to stir his interest, as it was just another dirty and boring water puddle. He could see the various camps surrounding the lake, each specialized in their own special bullshit. But the thing that caught his attention was the little black island in the middle of it all. He knew about Spooky Island since day one, it wasn’t exactly something that was easy to miss on Jasper’s camp tour. The counselor made a point to never approach the dangerous island, and of course, that just made Max want to explore it more. What he never noticed before, was the house in the middle of it.

“Wait..does someone actually lives there?” said Max out loud. 

“Yep! It’s Mister Campbell’s summer home.” smiled Jasper.

“Summer home?” Max snorted, “Why the fuck would he build it on Spooky Island?”

“Well, Mister Campbell enjoys bringing his souvenirs from his adventures there.” answered Jasper, “Plus he likes his privacy.”

“Right…” muttered Max. It made sense in retrospect. Campbell was a famous adventurer, and famous adventurers build mansions in the woods. But why on Spooky Island? The place was nothing but doom and gloom. You’d think he would build his dream home someplace more… green, or even someplace with a breathtaking view of the wilds. Instead, he picked a small, dark and depressing island.

“He also mentioned about it being the perfect place for…something.” continued Jasper, almost to himself. “But I’m sure it’s nothing important.” he smiled. “Now come on campers! We still have a long way to go!”

A groan rose from the campers as they marched on. Max glared at the island for a while longer before he too rejoined the hiking group.

\---

The day was long. Too long in Max’s opinion. They finished hiking around the afternoon, and continued the usual random activities until super. When night fell,(and when the dishes were done) Max quickly made his way towards the counselor’s cabin and knocked on the door.

“Max?” Gwen was standing at the door with a bewildered expression. Max being the last person she expected. “What are you doing here?” 

“Oh! Let him in Gwen, Max wanted to talk to me tonight.” Max heard Jasper’s voice from inside the cabin. Gwen shrugged and let the small camper in. 

The cabin was small but cozy. The place was split into two halves for each counselor. Both had their beds, desks and chairs, but each radiated their personalities. Gwen side was littered with magazines, trashy TV shows DVDs and posters of half naked werewolves. Jasper’s side on the other hand, reeked of the nineties. Movie posters of that era were hung everywhere, and despite having action figures covering every inch of every available surface, it was surprisingly tidy. Max had to fight every fiber in his being to not call him a nerd. “Hey Max! Come on in, and make yourself at home! I just need to finish signing this boring adult stuff.”

Max sat on a stool next to him and let his eyes wander. He watched as Gwen went back to reading her book on her bed, zoning him out of her romantic drama. He then spotted a pinboard full of photos besides Jasper, but didn’t get a chance to really look at them as the counselor put his pen down. “Alright!” beamed Jasper, turning in his chair to face Max, “What’s the dealio?”

Max didn’t answer. Instead, he was glaring at Gwen, he had a feeling she would make fun of him for the rest of summer if she knew. Jasper followed his gaze, and slapped his forehead in realization. “Oh right! You just wanted to tell me.” He turn to face his co-counselor. “Hey Gwen? Mind putting some music on?” Jasper was pointing at his ears. Gwen sighed and fetched her earbuds and phone from her desk. She jammed the earbuds in her ears and blasted her music. She gave a “are you happy now?” look towards them before going back to reading.

“Alright, so what’s wrong?” continued Jasper.

Max was embarrassed. He’s never had to ask for an adult for help before, he’s been a lone wolf for most of his life. But this situation is different. Yeah, at first he wanted to prove Nikki wrong that the mystery counselor was a ghost...but he knew he couldn’t fight off a psychopath or a hell bent spirit. He took a deep breath and swallowed his pride. “I...think there’s a… guy in the woods…”

“A...guy?” repeated Jasper, the confusion plain on his face.

God damn it. Why is this so fucking hard? Thought Max. “Yes….” he finished by saying. 

“Was is maybe... just another camper?” Jasper probed.

“No..” 

“Maybe you saw us instead?” 

“No…” muttered Max, getting more agitated.

“Maybe…. It was the Quart-”

“God damn it Jasper!” Max jumped on the surprised counselor’s knees and grabbed his shirt. “There’s a goddamn psychopath stalking the fucking woods! That’s why I asked you how many people worked in this shithole! If you don’t hurry up and do something about it, you’re gonna have to glue our disembodied pieces together!”

“Max?! C-calm down!” The little camper was shaking him. “You’re not making any sense! Could you start from the top?”

“Right...right….” exhaled Max. He didn’t realise that he was panicking. Max explained how they were planning to escape by boat last night,(to Jasper’s shock) and how they were caught by a stranger who claimed to work at camp. Jasper raised an eyebrow. If there was somebody else working at this camp, he would surely know about it...right? He put Max down and got up to open up the file cabinet. Jasper grabbed a small bundle of files and placed them on the desk.

“Well, if he worked here, then he should have a file.”

“A file?” scoffed Max, “Why do you keep files of old counselors here?”

“I....don’t really know, now that you mention it… I think Mister Campbell just likes to keep them around.”

“Right… That isn’t fucking suspicious at all.” grumbled Max, and peered at the desk as Jasper opened the files and showed him pictures of the old counselors. Max shook his at each one. “None of them were him.” Max swore under his breath again.

“It would help if you told me how he looked like…” mumbled Jasper, putting the old files away.

“Well he’s freakishly tall, like you. Has that stupid red hair thing and he…” 

Max’s pause was too long, and Jasper turned around.

“And he….What?”

No answer.

“Max?”

Jasper tapped the camper on the shoulder. Max raised a finger and pointed at a photograph.

“Who the fuck is that?” cried Max.

Jasper followed the digit and squinted at the photo. “Oh!” he laughed, “That’s just an old picture of when I was camper here.” He removed it from the board, his face washed over with nostalgia.

“But who the fuck is that!” repeated Max.

He was pointing a shaking finger at one particular smiling boy in the picture.

A boy with red hair and green eyes. 

The stranger as a kid.

“Oh! That’s David!” smiled Jasper. “God, I haven’t seen him since then...Wonder how he is…” Nostalgia taking root again.

“Haven’t seen him since? When was the last time you saw him?”

“Gosh! I must have been ten years old back then…”

“Jasper!”

“Right! Sorry.” he laughed a little, then let out a sad sigh. “Last time I saw him was...I think the summer of 95... I should have ask for his new address…”

“Address? He moved away?”

“Yup! In the middle of summer too! He never mentioned anything about it, but I guess he didn’t want to make anybody sad.”

Max thought for a moment, “Wait, so if he never told you, how do you know he moved away?”

“Mister Campbell told me.”

Max furrowed his brows. There was that name again. Mister Campbell. So far all the weird and suspicious things has his name attached to it. “Did Campbell ever tell you where David moved to?”

“Nope. He was pretty adamant on not telling me.” sighed Jasper. He pinned the photo back on the board. “So, how did this mystery guy looked like?”

Max glared at him, “Well, I hope your ready for a happy reunion…” his voice dripping with sarcasm, “Because it turns out, your long lost best friend is the psychopath in the woods!”

“What?” cried Jasper. 

“The future axe murderer is David you moron!”

“What possibly gave you that idea?!”

“Gee, is it because David has red hair, green eyes and that stupid shit eating grin like the stranger that I saw?!”

The silence was heavy in the tiny room. It took a while for Max to notice that Jasper was giving him a disappointed look.

“Oh god...You think I’m lying! Aren’t you!” accused Max.

“Well…”

“You are! I knew it! This is what I get for asking an adult for help!” The boy was panicking, and pacing around the room. “Fuck, you probably think this is a shitty prank...” Jasper placed a gentle hand on Max’s shoulder to stop his pacing.

“Cool your jets, Max. I… I don’t think you’re lying, but you’re clearly not thinking straight! Take some deep breaths. Better?”

When Max didn’t respond, Jasper continued.

“Listen… maybe you did see a someone last night, and maybe they did look like David… But thinking that it was him is ridiculous! I haven’t seen him since I was a kid, and he wouldn’t have a reason to come all the way back to Sleepy Peek! Now, if it makes you feel better, I can ask the Quartermaster to do some patrol around camp at night.”

Max nodded, he doubted that anyone, ghost or psychopath, would want to mess with the QM. “Fine…” he agreed, “But if the camp ends up being the next inspiration for the next Friday the thirteenth movie, then that’s on you.” He turned on his heels and as he opened the door, Max muttered something that sounded vaguely like a thank you, and left. Jasper fell back into his chair and covered his face with his hands. He then leaned back and started at the photograph on the wall.

“So, what was that about?” asked an intrigued Gwen.

“W-what? G-Gwen?! Were you eavesdropping?” yelped Jasper.

“Kinda hard not to, when you two are somehow louder then the music.” she sat up and took her earbuds out. “He looks really shaken up.”

“Yeah… he’s just a really scared kid right now, and well, he’s probably just seeing things in the dark…” sighed Jasper.

“I’d say, he looks like he saw a ghost.”


	4. Contacting the Dead: For Dummies

For once in his young life, Max was actually happy. Days have passed and he hadn’t seen this David guy at all. Turns out, when you get one psychopath to patrol the camp, it keeps any others away. Nikki and Neil would bug him about his secret trip to the counselors cabin almost daily. He didn't want to cause unnecessary excitement now that he was finally getting some well deserved sleep. Max could finally get back to causing a little bit of mayhem at camp. It didn’t take much to pit the two magic kids against one another. They Just needed to prove to him which type of magic is better. He laid on the grass to enjoy the sun and his small touches of chaos for the day.

Until a shadow came over him. 

Nikki was looking down at him with the biggest toothy grin he ever saw. “Max!” excitement spilling out of her voice, “Get up! You have got to see this!”

Max let out a loud groan. “Christ, Nikki… Don’t tell me you’re still looking for fucking ghost clues.”

She nodded her head vigorously, and grabbed Max’s arm and yanked him up on his feet.

“OW! Nikki what the fu-”

Max didn’t have time to finish swearing as Nikki was practically dragging him behind the Mess Hall.

“I found something cool in the shed!” she replied gleefully.

To his surprise, the doors were open, with the lock sizzling on the ground.

“You guys actually broke into that dump?” He didn’t think they would go through with it. Well...except for Nikki, who would take that as a challenge. Neil must have been forced into her shenanigans.

“With a little science and acid, that old lock didn’t stand a chance.” Neil said from within the old building. “Now get in here! Before the counselors see us!”

They both slipped in and Max shut the door behind them. Neil flicked on his flashlight, illuminating the dusty shed. 

“Alright, what kinda bullshit did you want to show me today.” A scowl apparent on Max’s face. He was hoping to see the outcome of the fight he had set up. Nikki didn’t waste anymore time and disappeared in the back behind a pile of junk. She emerged dragging two oars behind her. “Check out what I found!”

“What we found, Nikki…” corrected Neil.

“Whatever!” dismissing him. “It’s the oars that guy took!”

Max raised an unimpressed eyebrow, “So? Big deal, you found them in a spot where any adult would hide shit from shitty kids.”

“Fair.” she nodded, “But it’s what I found on them that makes it so important. Are you ready to eat your hoodie Max?”

Max looked at Neil and back to Nikki. With a sigh, he pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes tightly. “Fine. Just show me your clue, or whatever, so I can get back to watching the magic kids kill each other.”

Nikki dropped one oar and swang the other one in front of her, almost knocking Neil to the floor “Ta-dah!” she exclaimed.

“...And what exactly am I looking for Nikki?” questioned Max. He inspected the oar, and nothing looked out of the ordinary.

“Duuh! There’s some ghost jelly on it!” she stated proudly.

“Ghost….Jelly…” Max repeated slowly, still not understanding what she was talking about.

“Ectoplasm…” chimed in Neil, “She means ectoplasm.”

“Ooh! Ectoplasm!” said Max with fake enthusiasm, “Well fuck me, that just proves everything!” 

“Alright, we get it, sarcasm is your thing.” huffed Neil. “Quit being a drama queen and let me show you.”

Neil grabbed the oar that Nikki was holding and proceed to run his flashlight over it like he was scanning it, then turned it off. Max had to rub his eyes a few times to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.

Where the stranger was holding the oars days ago, there was a faint blue glow resembling a clenched hand. Max reached for the oar, and gently touched the mysterious substance. He was surprised how cold and slimy it was, despite the small amount of it.

“Are you...Are you sure that this is the...ecto-thing?” hesitated Max. Things were going so well, and now he was being pulled back into the terrifying void.

“Well….not really” Neil sighed. “I would need a bigger sample to test then what is on the oars.”

“Test? How can you test for something like this?”

“It’s a lot of trial and error Max. Besides, I need to make sure that this is the real thing!”

“Real thing? What for?”

“For the scientific recognition, Max! My name will be plastered all over the world with the discovery of a lifetime! Seriously! Am I the only one who wants to get filthy rich off of this?”

“Pretty much.” answered Nikki, “I just want to find more ghost jelly.”

“Okay, but how the hell are we gonna get more of this stuff.” asked Max, still staring at the faint glow of the ectoplasm. The trio thought for a moment in silence. 

“Maybe we can lure him out?” suggested Neil.

“Lure him out? Sorry Neil, but the last thing I want to do is lure a stranger out of the woods...And can you turn the light back on?” grumbled Max. He was never scared of the dark, but now it felt like it was choking him.

“What’s the matter Max, scared of the scary camp man?” taunted Nikki.

“No, I’m not!”

“Good! Then you won’t have a problem sitting in on our séance.”

“A what, now?”

“A s-séance?.” stuttered Neil, “H-how exactly are we do that? We don’t exactly got the tools for one and it’s completely unfounded!”

“Well, we’re just gonna have to test it ourselves!” Nikki beamed with confidence. “As for the tools…Give me the rest of the day to look for them, then we’ll all sneak into the Mess Hall when everyone is asleep.”

“You were planning something like this since day one, weren't you.” sighed Max. 

“Yep!”

Max glared at her for a while, “Fine.” he grumbled, “I’ll sit on on your séance, but only so you can see how much of a huge fucking waste of time this is.”

“Sure, Max.” she smiled, and ran out of the shed to scavenge for the items they needed for tonight.

“What the fuck was that?” questioned Max. “Does she not believe me that this whole thing is dumb?”

“Well..you’re not exactly an expert on hiding your...feelings about this…” said Neil carefully. “Anyone with an adequate brain function can see that you’re in huge denial.”

Max became flustered, “I..what?!No! It’s just…..” One single glance at Neil told him to save face. “I just wanted a normal shitty summer, not whatever this is.” he quickly said while waving his hands around. 

Neil nodded, “Yeah... Now let’s get out of here, I’d rather not know what the QM will do to us if he catches us snooping around.”

\---

“A fucking course…” sighed Max while peeking out the Mess Hall window. A storm had started during the night. It made sneaking out of the tent easier since the heavy rain and the thunder masked any noise, but left the trio completely drenched and cold once they made their way in the dark building. 

Nikki cleared a space on the old wooden floor and drop her bundle of stuff she found during the day. She placed a baking pan on the floor and put a candle, two glow sticks and jar of fireflies at the corners of the pan. She then reached into her overall pocket and took out a permanent marker. On the baking pan, Nikki wrote all the letters of the alphabet and the numbers zero to nine in the middle, a yes and no answer in the top corners, and a goodbye on the bottom. She then place a drinking glass upside down on the pan. Satisfied with her work, she called the boys over.

“An ouija board? Really?” huffed Max, “You know that shit doesn’t really work, right?”

“I’m going to have to agree with Max.” said Neil, “It’s been proven that unconscious, involuntary movement of people is what slides the planchette around.”

Nikki rolled her eyes, “Do you got a better idea on how to lure a ghost?

“Not really…” replied Neil and sat down in defeat, opposite of Nikki. 

Max begrudgingly sat with his friends. Suddenly, Nikki shoved a pencil and a notepad in his hands. “What are these for?” he asked with an annoyed tone.

“Since you’re just observing, you can write down whatever the ghost spells out!”

Max just nodded, and sighed. Might as well amuse her for the night, there was no point on fighting Nikki about this.

“Soooo… how do we start this thing?” asked Neil. He was used to the rules and order of science. The supernatural was just a big unknown mess that needed cleaning up.

“Well,” said Nikki, deep in thought “from what I remember from the ghost shows, all we got to do is place our fingers on the glass and ask away.”

“Is this even gonna work?” questioned Max, eyeing the baking pan with suspicion. “This board, I mean? It doesn't look too...official, compared to the ones they sell in a store.”

“Hush!” hissed Nikki, “I’m trying to think what to ask the ghost…”

“Well...how about we ask for a name?” suggested Neil.

Nikki let out of dramatic groan, “But that’s so boring! Let’s ask how he died and how messy it was!”

“W-we’ll...work our way towards that…” hesitated Neil. “L-let’s just start with the easy stuff, please.”

“Fine…” sighed Nikki. The two gently placed their index fingers on the glass. Nikki cleared her throat. “Oh ghost from the world beyond!” she stated loudly with an overly dramatic voice. “We demand to speak with you! Make your presence known by-”

“Hey kids!” a voice startled the trio. They stumbled over each in blind panic. It took a moment for them to get their bearings, and started to scan the dark room for the immediate threat. There, by the faint glow of the assorted light sources, stood the smiling red-haired counselor. The campers stood frozen in fear. How did nobody notice him? 

Max recovered first, anger was building up in his chest.“How the fuck did you get in here?!”

“I came in through the kitchen door.” he pointed behind him, “But what on earth are you kids doing here in the middle of the night!”

“Talking to the dead.” Nikki babbled before Neil and Max could shush her. 

David turned white, more white that Max thought it was possible for the already pale man. “Y-you mean like...talking to a g-ghost?”

“Yeah! We were gonna ask questions with the ouija board!” Nikki said excitedly, her fear steadily dissipating.

“Nikki! Shut up!” hissed Neil.

“Q-questions? Like what?” asked David, growing more uncomfortable and fidgeting with his wrist.

Before Nikki could even open her mouth, Neil clasps both hands on her lips, effectively shutting her up. Her cries of complained muffled by Neil wrestling her to the ground. “Oh, y-you know…” continued Neil nervously, “Nothing to important.” 

Nikki licked Neil’s hands, “Gahh! Nikki!” he cried in utter disgust, and quickly wiped his hands on his pants. She shot David a mischievous smile, “Want to join? The more the merrier!”

“W-wouldn’t you prefer going to bed?” He smiled nervously, “You know.. Where it’s safe and warm and not scary?”

Nikki shook her head, “We’ll go to bed after, we promise. We just really need the help right now Mr. Camp man.” She gave him her best sad puppy dog look she could muster.

David swallowed hard, “Oh...Alright, I can’t say no to a camper who need help! Even if what they are doing is really, really scary…” The trio sat around the ouija board once again, with David joining them. Max was eyeing the counselor, looking for any sign that may tell him who or what he is. He found that is was easier to focus on him, compared to their first meeting. Did being inside made a difference? He decided to take notes, might as well use the notepad and pencil for something, he thought. Nikki set up the board again, and resumed the position that they were in before they were interrupted. “If there is any spirits present,” she gave David a wink, “Tell us your name!”

Everyone, except for Max, watched the makeshift ouija board with anticipation. Seconds passed, then minutes. But the glass didn’t move. Nikki faltered for a bit, but regained her composure fast enough. “Moving on!” she said while shooting a glare at David, who was transfixed on the board with a worried looked. “Was your death totally gruesome?” Once again, nothing happened, not even a tiny rattle. Nikki was getting frustrated. The ghost was right there! Why wasn’t it moving? Maybe they did need a real board for this. “Will you do anything remotely cool tonight?” Nikki asked again, her patience running thin.

The glass refused to budge.

“Is this it?” said Neil after a long uncomfortable silence. 

“Well..no, He’s- I mean, the ghost is supposed to move it.”

They both looked at the counselor, who was still staring intently at the board. In fact, David looked like he was in a trance. Neil waved his hand in front of David’s face but he just sat there, unblinking. Max got up and snapped his fingers in front of the counselors glazed over face. “Wake the fuck up David!”

“Wait...You knew his name already?” hissed Nikki, surprised and a little annoyed that Max didn’t share this discovery. Max looked away from their accusing stare. He was gonna have to explain to them that the visit at the counselor’s cabin revealed a lot more then he let on. He knew if he told Nikki at least, she would lose her shit and get overly excited, like she was doing now.

David blinked a few times, “Oh! Max! You remembered my name!” he smiled, “So, when are we gonna start?”

“We already did you idiot, you spaced out even worse than space kid for the whole thing.” said Max.

“I did?” David’s smile faltered for a second. His mind was racing, trying to figure out  
how he let himself drift away so easily. Then as fast as his worry washed over him, his smile returned. “How very unlike me! I’m usually as vigilant as a hawk!” He quickly got to his feet, “It’s getting late, and since it looks like you are done, I’ll lead you kiddos back to your tent.” David made his way towards the doors, but stopped when he realised that no one was following him. “Is everything alright?”

Despite the thunder and rain, there was heavy silence in the room.

“Okay, let’s stop beating around the fucking bush.” sighed Max. He took a few steps forward and pointed an accusing finger at David. He needed to know what this idiot was, once and for all. “Are you a ghost?” 

David just stared at him with a dumbfounded look. He turned to glance at the home made ouija board, then back to Max.

“Wait.. Is that why you...”

“Are you a fucking ghost, or not?” the boy repeated louder.

“O-of course I’m not!” said a flustered David “Ghost are absolutely scary! A-and I think I would know if I was one!”

“Would you?”

“I..w-what?” said David, taken aback by the question.

“Would you know that you are a ghost? Prove it. Prove it to me right fucking now that you aren’t a ghost.” 

“Max, I don’t underst-” 

“Just!..” Max let out a long angry sigh before collecting himself again. He remembered that he was holding a notepad and a pencil. “Here, just hold this.” and he handed the pencil to the counselor

David gently took the pencil in his hands, unsure what to expect. They all looked at him as if waiting for him to do something, but he didn't know what. He was just holding a pencil, there’s nothing strange about that, was there? “Is that all you wanted me to do?” he asked with a nervous smile. 

Max didn’t even answer, he quickly snatched the pencil from David’s hands, and tossed it to Neil. 

“Neil, check if there some stuff on it!” he ordered. Neil took a lighter out of his pocket. Nikki made it clear to them that the electronics they had would not be allowed at the scéance. Besides, if this was anything like the encounter at beach, his flashlight wouldn’t work. He carefully directed the flame under the pencil, and moved it slowly back and forth.

“W-what are you looking for?” asked David. He was getting self-conscious and stared at his hands for any spec of dirt on them.

“For ghost jelly!” said a voice. David jumped and noticed that Nikki was now standing next to him. She was poking at his leg in a vain attempt to get her fingers to pass through them.

“It’s clean…” sighed Neil. He handed the pencil back to Max.

“Clean of what?” pried David, still trying to shoo away Nikki’s constant poking.

“Damn it.” cursed Max. Why wasn’t there any ectoplasm? Was the pencil not a big enough thing for David to hold? Maybe he wasn’t even dead...What else could they try just to be sure? His knowledge of ghost was quite limited. The only thing he could do at the moment was...

“Hey David, were you there when I went to talk to Jasper?”

“Of course not!” David huffed, holding Nikki at arms length away. “On the hike you said you wanted to talk to him privately, and I wouldn't stoop so low as to invade a campers privacy!”

“Alright, I’m going to ignore that last part...” mumbled an unsettled Max, before regaining his confidence. “But Jasper said that you don't have a file here.”

“W-what? How did your talk with Jasper end up there?”

“Does it matter? Point is, you technically don’t work here at the camp, David. Campbell has a file on everyone who ever had a job here, and you don’t.”

“No… That can’t be right…” David said to himself. He placed Nikki gently on the floor and started pacing around the room. “Maybe it was in the bottom drawer?”

“I doubt it would be in the drawer labeled ‘Jasper’s VHS collection.’ We’ve checked everything. ”

“But...that doesn’t make sense…” mumbled David. Max 's little plan was working. If he could make him more nervous, he would maybe lower his guard and let something slip on accident.

“A real shame… and I was starting to like you too.” he lied. “But, I guess since you’re not a real Camp Campbell counselor, then you’re just some creepy guy in the woods spying on kids.” he said in fake surprise.

“I’m not!..” said the horrified David, “..M-Mr.Campbell probably just moved it to his summer home!”

“Well then, you better go and get it! Because we aren’t going back to our tent until you show us real prove that you work here.” grinned Max.

David bit his lip “Alright...But it’s going to take me a while to go…to the...island...” He suddenly cradled his head in his hands, “I...I don’t feel…”

Max took a step back, “Whoa, you’re not gonna puke now are you?”

“I...don’t think… I feel so… tired…” he panted, thoughts just seem to appear and float everywhere in his mind. His vision was getting more and more blurry, until finally, he fell to his hands and knees. 

“Max, what do we do?” he heard Neil whisper to him, but he just shook his head. What could they do? Max snapped his fingers in David’s face again, but the counselor was completely unresponsive and breathing heavily. Max didn’t like the guy, but it was hard to not be mildly concerned when somebody is in the process of throwing up a lung. A screeching like noise made him jump. He turn around to find the source, and almost didn’t want to believe what he saw.

“Guys! Look!” gasped Nikki, pointing at the homemade ouija. The glass was rattling violently and started to move in a slow, circular pattern. As the trio approached the board cautiously, the glass moved faster. It finally stopped on one letter.

D

Seconds past, and the glass moved again. 

A

No fucking way, Max thought. His mouth was too dry to utter anything.

V

Max was shaking, he didn’t know if it was out of fear or anger. His hands balled into a tight fist. His nails digging into his own skin, as if the pain acted as his only anchor to reality.

I

His mind raced to find some sort of logical explanation to all of this but, he couldn’t. He couldn’t find anything. He demanded proof and there it was, handed to him on a silver platter, and he didn’t like it. 

D

The glass returned to making small, slow circles on the baking pan.The trio looked at each other. They were to in shock to speak, but they seemed to agree with each other wordlessly. David was a ghost and he was answering the questions, albeit with a delay. Max turned to look at the counselor, and found that he had hard time focusing on him again. In fact, the more he stared, the more he realised that he could see the doors behind the counselor’s body. The sound of glass on metal pulled his attention back to the board. It gravitated to the top corner of the pan

YES

That feeling of dread creeping down Max’s neck returned. He almost forgot what Nikki’s second question was. It was bad enough that his reality was falling apart at the seams, now he had to wonder what could have possibly kill a man here at camp? Sure, Camp Campbell was walking on the fine line of health and safety, but nothing was dangerous enough to cause somebody’s painful end, right? The glass move again, preparing to answer the final question.

I-D-O-N-T-K-N-O-W

After what felt like hours, the drinking glass slowly slid at the bottom of the pan.

GOODBYE

The heavyweight of dread disappeared and the room fell in a deep silence.

“H-holy shit..” stuttered Neil who couldn’t stop shaking all over, “T-that- was…”

“So COOL!” interrupted Nikki, with cries of joy. She was practically dancing around the room, chanting “Suck it, Max!” over and over again. Max rolled his eyes and was about to berate her when the desperate gasps of David startled them. The counselor sounded like he was holding his breath the entire time, and just now remembered how to breath. The trio approached him slowly.

“Hey, David... Are you okay?” Max asked the counselor. He felt silly asking a ghost if he was feeling better. By the very definition of the word, they really aren’t okay.

“I’m..fine. Thank you.” David’s voice sounded distant, almost like an echo. He manage to sit up and placed his hands on his knees. “I’m just so tired all of the sudden…”

“Do you remember anything that just happened?”

“No...I must have been daydreaming again.” David tried to laugh, but it came out as a breathless wheeze instead. “I don’t remember the last time I had a dizzy spell that bad before…”

“Right…” said Max, “ Now, are you absolutely sure you’re not ghost or anything?.”

“Of course I’m not, Max.” he smiled and ruffled the boy’s thick black hair. Max flinched at the cold touch on his head, and noticed something that he could’ve have sworn wasn’t there before. There was a red mark that circled David’s wrist like an angry snake. Max inspected David’s left hand, and it was there too, hiding under his watch. What the hell were those markings? Before Max could question anything, David stood up.

“Well, I think it’s time we all go to bed.” he said with a yawn. “I’ll take you kids to your tent.” He placed his hand to push the door open, but it went straight through it instead. Loosing his balance, David’s followed after.The trio heard a muffled thud on the other side, they opened the door with a slow creak. David was lying on the wet ground, with a confused look on his face. “I must have been more tired than I thought!” he said, getting up. “I didn’t even noticed that the door was open.” he smiled, trying to hide his embarrassment.

“But, the door wasn’t even-Ouch!” cried Nikki. Max had pinched her to shut her up. He would apologize later when they were out of supernatural earshot.

“Yeah….Listen, we know our way to the tents, so why don’t you call it a night and get some rest.” suggested Max.

“Are you sure? You’re not gonna try to escape again are you?” I mean, not that you can, ... “ David laughed nervously.

Max raised an eyebrow. Was that a threat? He shook his head, no way this smiling ghost doofus would threatened them by purpose. “Trust me, the last thing we want to do is go running around in the forest at night.” said Max. He was surprisingly being honest for the first time at camp. The counselor and the camper stared at each other in some invisible battle of wills.

“Oh, alright.” sighed David. “I really do need to lay down for an hour or two… Blanking out twice in one day can’t be good for me...” He told the kids goodnight and headed off towards the beach. David just seem to fade away the further he got, almost dissolving with the rain. The kids just stared in silence at the direction David disappeared, then at each other. They all had different reactions to tonight’s scéance, but agreed to explore that topic tomorrow. They ran to their tents and into the warm and safety of their sleeping cots. Max squeeze the life out of his teddy bear that he kept hidden under the thick sleeping bag. “Fuck.” he mumbled to himself.

He didn’t sleep that night.

No one did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit, this chapter was suppose to be complete like 4 weeks ago. The first week i spend on vacation way out of town, the second week was just a week-long family party. Don't know about you guys, but I really rather not get caught writing fanfics by my uncles/aunts/cousins/etc. (which is funny, since it's not like I'm writing smut or anything.) I just don't want to explain the whole fanfiction stuff to them. Then for last 2 weeks, I didn't like what I wrote during that time so I pretty much scrapped it and retyped it, and finally it's out!
> 
> I hope you enjoy my trash! I'll go over and fix any word derps and typos at a later date, for now, I just want to breath.


	5. Tough Choices

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *quietly updates fanfic like I didn't totally forgot*
> 
> Enjoy! And sorry for any spelling mistakes.

“Good morning, campers!” Jasper’s voice echoed throughout the camp. “It’s 7am, time to eat a healthy breakfast and get ready for a day of radical activities!” A chorus a groans from the tents emerged, and one by one, sleepy camper left their beds and headed towards the mess hall. Nikki, Neil, and Max were the last to show up at their table. Gwen went to give the late campers their helping of the QM’s infamous mashed potatoes and noticed the dark bags under the trio’s eyes. “Didn’t get any sleep last night?” Gwen asked. She sat down at the table with the groggy kids.

“What?...oh...yeah, we were up all night…” yawned Max. rubbing his eyes a bit.. It was hard to get any sleep when your whole world view gets flipped upside down. When it was clear that no one was asleep, the trio spend all night discussing the Mess Hall scéance. Well, Nikki and Neil did anyway. Max told them about his visit at the counselor’s cabin, then spend most of the night staring at the tent ceiling. 

“That sucks, but since we’re talking, did you guys happen to hear anything last night?”

“You mean, besides the storm?”

“Yeah, like, did anybody sneak out last night, for example.”

“No” Max lied, “We didn’t hear anything like that...why?”

“Well…. somebody sneaked out last night and left a huge mess for Jasper and I to clean up this morning….”

“A mess? What kind of mess?” asked Max a bit too quickly. Gwen eyed him suspiciously for a moment, and he shrugged in response. “Just asking, I need some new material to fuck with you guys.”

Gwen rolled her eyes, but continued against her better judgement, “Some jerks thought it would be funny to stage this whole... occult scene with this homemade ouija board in the mess hall last night.” she grumbled. “They then poured this slimy goo all over the place… and that took forever to clean.”

“Wait...what?” said a surprised Max. There wasn’t any trace of ectoplasm anywhere last night, not even on the pencil. How in the hell did it end up being everywhere? He elbowed Neil, who was busy making a mountain out of his mushy food, and gave him a look to pay attention. “What do you mean by slime?”

“Just really gross looking stuff, I don’t know what else to call it.” Gwen said with a grimace, “The front door was just covered in it. It was a real bitch to clean too, we ended up just throwing away the mop and the baking sheet in the garbage.”

“Where?!” said Neil loudly, earning him some strange looks from everyone in the building. “I-I just want some s-samples… to test.”

“It’s In the garbage cans, behind the mess hall...” said Gwen. Neil quickly left the table, dragging Nikki behind him. There was no chance that he would willingly go dumpster diving. He might as well bring somebody who does. Max and Gwen watched them leave. “Alright, that wasn’t weird at all…” Gwen mumbled.

Max shrugged, “I’ve seen weirder.” he said casually, forgetting who he was talking too. Gwen raised an eyebrow in response. “W-well, you clearly don’t know the rest of the campers… compared to them, I’m a fucking saint.” He wasn’t exactly lying, the campers here were an odd bunch.

“Yes, but out of all of them, you’re the only one actively making my life a living hell.”

“Something has got to entertain me in this shithole of a camp” he grinned.

Gwen couldn’t help but smile a little at the response. “Fair enough, but that still doesn’t take you off my shit list Max. You three are the top suspects for this accident now.”

“Accusing a child? Without evidence? Really Gwen, I thought you were better than this.” Max teased.

“Oh, ha ha. Next time you plan a prank, could you not use whatever that slime stuff was?”

“No promises.” said Max. Realising that she wasn’t going to get a better answer, Gwen shook her head and left to join Jasper keeping an eye on the rest of the campers. Finally alone, Max poked at his food. He resumed to what he spent most of the night up about.

Thinking.

Thinking on what to do next. He never expected this ghost thing to pan out the way it did. The existence of the supernatural brought up something that he thought he buried a long time ago. The fear of monsters in the closet. Max really thought he had outgrown that. He tried to reason with himself that he was over exaggerating his fear. There was nothing really scary about David, besides the whole dead thing. He was a happy-go-lucky idiot, the type of personality that Max would love to mess with. But those markings on David’s wrist last night… he couldn’t stop thinking about them. What in the world could have cause those marks? Max shook his head. Whatever it was, it clearly didn’t end well for David. He tried to force a couple of more bites of the questionable food, before throwing the rest in the garbage. He would need all the energy he could get. A new plan was forming in his head and nothing was going to stop him.

\---

Neil and Nikki where at the makeshift science lab in the campground when Max found them. Neil was scrapping every last bit of ectoplasm in several wooden beakers. “There! That should be a good enough sample size.” beamed Neil, placing the baking pan under his science stall.

“I still don’t understand why you won’t let me touch the stuff…” Nikki pouted, about to dip a finger into one of the beakers before Neil quickly snatched them away.

“Because, you’ll contaminate the samples Nikki! I need these to run some test!”

Nikki mumbled something about it being in the garbage already, but Neil ignored her. They already knew that David was indeed a ghost, but Neil needed to make sure of it. If he wanted to be make a fortune out of discovering the supernatural, he couldn’t afford mistakes that could ruin his future reputation. Just then, Max sat up on his little wooden counter top and disrupted Neil’s train of thought.

“Jesus, you guys are still on this?” said Max.

“How could we not?” huffed Neil, hiding the beakers of ectoplasm under the counter and away from Nikki’s prying fingers. “This could change the world as we know it!”

“Of course, how could I fucking forget…” mumbled Max, “But don’t you think you two have forgotten the real goal here?” Nikki and Neil just stared in confusion. Christ, they really had no idea, Max thought and rolled his eyes. “It’s to escape this camps, you idiots!”

“W-what?! Escape! After we’re so close to discovering something new?!”

“That’s the whole reason we started this thing! We wanted to figure out who the hell was David and how he kept catching us so we could run away. Now we know, so let’s get the fuck out of here!” 

“B-but Max! Don’t you want to know how Dav-”

“No! Fuck no! In fact, the less we know about this, the better.” he said, jumping down from the counter and crossing his arms. “If something at this shitty camp managed to actually kill someone, then it’s all the more reason to get the hell out of here while we still can.”

Neil sighed, “Max...You proved it yourself when you found that old photo in Jaspers’ room. There hasn’t been a death or disappearance here for like, what? A decade?”

“Oh, so that means the camp is just suddenly safe?”

“W-well...no...But did you ever consider that his death might have been caused by a freak accident?” Neil reasoned.

Max had a brief look of surprise on his face before quickly scowling again, “What do you mean?” He could immediately see that Neil made no effort to hide the smug look on his face. Max regretted asking that question.

“Hundreds of people go missing in national parks every year. He could have easily wandered deeper into the woods while no one was looking. There isn’t always a psycho responsible for everything.”

“You’re wrong about his one…” Max mumbled, the images of David’s wrist flashed into his mind. “Someone has to be responsible for that.”

“Point is, I’m not gonna run away from this potential gold mine just because you’re a little paranoid.” Max winced at the comment, but stood his ground.

“Then it will be just me and Nikki escaping this shit hole this afternoon.” Max retorted quickly, determined to not lose whatever high ground he had left in the argument. They looked around for her, but she was nowhere to be seen, that is, until Neil yelp. Nikki was crouched beside him with an arm outstretched towards the beakers of ectoplasm. Realising that the attention was on her she quickly stood up and hid her hands behind her back. “I wasn’t-” she babbled, but she was cut off by Neil raising his hand. 

“That doesn’t matter now.” he said, earning a confused look from Nikki. “Who are you going to choose?”

“Wha..?” said Nikki after a few moments of silence. She was clueless of the rising tension between her two boys.

“Would you rather escape camp with Max, or be my test- I mean, assistant?”

“Euuuhh...Which one will let me play with the ecto?”

“Nikki, if you become my lab assistant, I’ll let you bathe in it.” smiled Neil. “There’s your answer Max.”

Max shoved his hands in his hoodie pocket, “Fine.” He mumbled, trying his best and failing to suppress his frustration. “You guys would have just slowed me down anyway with your constant bitching.” He turned away from them and looked around for the counselors. Lucky for him, Gwen and Jasper were distracted by a makeshift tug-of-war match, where some poor camper was the rope. Max took in a deep breath, if he was going to escape, now would be the time. He turn to point a finger at his former friends. “But don’t you dare come crawling back to me when whatever killed David, kills you too!” Max bolted towards the woods before they could say anything.

“Shouldn’t we go after him?” asked Nikki, a feeling of guilt settling in her gut. Neil shook his head. “Why should we?” he said bitterly, “He’s the one acting like an asshole. Besides, he’ll come back when he’s done yelling at trees or whatever.”

“I don’t know…” Nikki mumbled, “He looked really angry, or something.”

“He’ll be fine.” Neil coerced, “If it'll make you feel better, I’ll let you wring out the ectoplasm from that dirty old mop.”

\---

Max ran until his legs felt like jelly and leaned against a nearby tree to catch his breath. He must of put in some pretty good distance between him and Camp Campbell. If Neil and Nikki didn’t rat him out to the counselors, they won’t know that he’s missing until bedtime. By the time they do noticed, he’ll be on the next bus out of this shithole. Max let a grin creep up on his face. He couldn’t believe how easy it was. All he needed to do was run into the woods while no one was looking, instead of coming up with the next “Great Escape” type plan. He looked around for a moment, seeing nothing but trees all around him. The feeling of victory faded away for second, as a burning question rose in the back of his mind.

Where was that shitty town anyway?

He really should have paid attention in wilderness survival camp.

“Fuck.”

He couldn’t be lost already, he just ran in a straight line!

He forced himself to calm down. Panicking will only make things worse. It was the only thing he managed to remember from Jasper’s lecture. He picked up a stick and scribbled a crude map of the camp in the dirt. Alright, I ran and this direction, so the Mess Hall is here, and the tents over there, he thought….that means the entrance to the camp is... here? That seemed about right. How hard was it to find a road anyway? They were practically everywhere. He set off in the direction where the highway was definitely in, his confidence boosting with every step. He could already see himself playing video games in his room for the rest of summer. His parents dump him in Camp Campbell in the first place to go on vacation without any...annoyances. But Max came prepared once he overheard their little plans. He stolen the spare house key and memorised the house security alarm code, which thankfully was easy to remember. 

It was his birthday. 

Max didn’t know why they choose that to be their passcode, but he had a theory. It was probably the easiest numbers for them to remember. After all, how could they forget the day that ruined their happy rich little lives. 

He marched on. Soon he would be home, and he could do whatever he want.

\---

It was only after supper that Neil started to feel a little worried about Max. It was already getting dark out and he usually would have been caught by now or something. Neil briefly wondered if he should tell a counselor? He shook his head. No way he was gonna waste precious brain power worrying about Max’s mood swings. Yet the feeling still lingered in the back of his mind. Neil did his best to push the annoying thoughts out, and concentrated on writing down his findings and theories for the day.

The ectoplasm samples they collected raised more questions than answers. So far, long term exposure on the test-...euh...Nikki’s hand, and even letting her eat a small piece didn’t yield any negative effects. So far anyway… Nikki claimed the the sample tasted awful and Neil had a hunch as to why. The ectoplasm was sitting in the garbage for a few hours, and Neil was willing to bet that if Nikki does get sick, it was because she more or less ate garbage residue. But Neil did find something interesting during an experiment. He remembered how David’s very presence tempered with his flashlight. He place one of the beakers of ectoplasm on the table and retrieved his packet of batteries for his flashlight, and dropped one in. The end results were… somewhat expected. The fresh battery in the beaker was dead in a matter of minutes. What was unexpected was how the ectoplasm seem to solidify after draining the battery. He had to ask Nikki to dig it out with a spoon. 

“So why is this important?” Nikki asked, after unsuccessfully trying to make him leave the Mess Hall. Neil was furiously writing down his results and theories on a scrap of napkin. “Think about it, Nikki!” he said, not even looking up at her. “Why do ghost always have trouble manifesting a body for themselves, and yet David doesn’t?” Nikki shrugged in response, and Neil took that as a sign to continue. “They are missing a power source. All those creepy abandoned asylums and castles either have little, or no power at all so ghosts have trouble appearing. Yet David on the other hand, presumably shows up every night looking kinda normal.... why is that?” he asked again. Nikki just stared at him. “Power, and lots of it. If a flashlight battery dies in minutes in the small ectoplasm samples, then there's a huge power source somewhere that David leeches off of...but where?” he mumbled the last part to himself. But before he lost himself into a thinking frenzy, Nikki was pulling hard at his arm. “That’s great and all, but what about Max?”

“W-who?” 

“Max! It’s getting dark out and he hasn’t come back yet!”

“W-why would he be back? He said he was escaping camp, remember?” 

“I know, it’s just.... usually we would be caught in some wacky hi-jinks and returned to camp before supper! But now…” she glanced outside the opened doors of the Mess Hall. The sun was setting on Lake Lilac, signalling the time where the counselors would gather all the campers to the fire pit and be forced to listen to Jasper’s not-so-scary stories. Seeing Nikki’s expression quickly brought back his own worries about Max. Where the hell was he? “Maybe...we should-”

“There you are!” said a chipper voice. It was Jasper, and he was standing in the doorway holding in his hand a small book. “You three can’t be missing on this story!” he held up the book to show them. “Welcome to the dead house was my favourite Goosebumps book as a kid, and I know this will scare some socks off!” Jasper’s smiled at the kids, but it faltered when he only saw the there was only the two of them. “Where’s Max?” Nikki and Neil stared at each other, their minds racing. Should they tell Jasper? Should they lie? Neil was the first one to speak “I-I thought he was with you.” he mumbled. He wasn’t a very good liar. Jasper shook his head. “No, he isn’t at the campfire...we thought he was with you.”

Shit, Neil thought. This isn’t good. “M-maybe he’s sleeping back in the tents?” Jasper looked back outside and mumbled a maybe, but he was clearly getting worried. The silence was unbearable and Nikki bit her lip. Being unable to keep her mouth shut, she gave in to the invisible pressure, and spilled everything. 

“Max escaped into the woods because him and Neil had a fight about what to do next and Max wanted to run away and Neil didn’t want to anymore and then they made me choose but I just wanted to play with the ectoplasm so Max got angry and was like don’t come crying to me if you get killed and then ran into the forest and we didn’t see him since and it’s been really bugging me all day like really bad then I tried to tell Neil maybe we should tell somebody or maybe go look for him but he wouldn’t listen and then you showed up with your book and scary campfire stories and Neil is a terrible liar and here I am telling you what happening right now.”

Both Neil and Jasper were stunned. They were surprised that she managed to say so many words without taking a single breath, and still not make any sense. Nikki let out a sigh of relief “Wow!” she exclaimed, “that was a huge load off my chest. I feel so much better already!” 

Jasper was the first one to recover. “Wait a minute...Max did what?”

“Oh? So you want me to explain everything again?” she took a deep breath, but Neil interrupted her “He ran away…” the feeling a shame crept over him. He really should have told the counselors earlier. Jasper let his book slip from his hand and dropped to the floor. Panic was settling in, and he let out and audible “Oh, fuck….” before sprinting towards the campfire screaming Gwen’s name.

\---

“Well….shit…” sighed Max. He looked around the forest was last time to double check his situation.

He was lost.

Night had fallen fast and a chill was creeping up from the air. Max did his best to bundle up for warmth but his hoodie could only do so much. He honestly thought he would’ve found a road by now, instead he somehow got himself deeper into the woods. How was that possible? Max thought, I was going in a straight line, right? Then again… didn’t I pass that tree already? He swore under his breath. Stupid trees, and stupid forest. Max mumble curses at the various plant life in a vain attempt to make him feel better. How could he have been going in circles this whole time and not notice? It wasn’t that hard to walk in a straight line. He stopped walking for a moment, as a worrying thought made its way in his mind. 

Was the forest… cursed somehow? Making him disoriented, forcing him to stay in the woods forever. Was David responsible for this? Max quickly spun around, expecting the ghostly camp counselor behind him, but nothing was there. He forced himself to calm down. It couldn’t possibly be David he thought, his spine or the back of his neck wasn’t tingling. This made the situation somehow worse, and he begrudgingly wished that David was here. At worse the ghost would lecture him about wandering the woods at night then bring him back to camp. Returning to the starting point sounds pleasant for once, instead of being hopelessly lost like he was now. “I better not die in this stupid fucking forest…” he mumbled to himself, “ Or else I’m going to haunt the living shit out of Neil for being a smartass.” He continued walking again, might as well and see if he can return to camp by himself and pretend that his plan didn’t completely backfire on him.

Suddenly, he felt something snap under his shoe. Max didn’t have time to react, as seconds later, the ground bellow him seem to lunge up and yank him up into the air. The boy fought against the invisible opponent. Kicking and even biting at whatever grabbed him. It was after a minute has passed that he realise that he wasn’t grabbed by a stranger.

He was trapped in a net.


	6. Search and Rescue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Terribly sorry for the long wait! This chapter gave me trouble for some reason and I just ended up pushing it on the back burner for a while. Enjoy!

The camp was in complete chaos. Gwen and Jasper herded the rest of the campers into the Mess Hall, along with the Quartermaster, as some form of a adult supervision was better than none. They did their best searching the woods, but with darkness falling fast, the counselors hopes were fading away, along with any clues on Max’s whereabouts. 

“I still don’t understand why we can’t call the cops.” mumbled Jasper, waving his phone’s flashlight between some thick bushes.

“For the twentieth time Jasper, it’s because Campbell doesn’t want us to.” said Gwen. “Probably because this camp is barely legal as it is.” 

Jasper reluctantly agreed. They’ve seen the camp founder show up to hide suspicious things and ridiculous amounts of money, one too many times. But now wasn’t the time to be thinking about the camp’s issues. There was a camper missing, and that was the most important priority right now. Even if said camper were the bane of their existence. “How far to you think Max could have gone?” ask Jasper.

“I don’t know…” sighed Gwen “Hopefully, not too far. That way I could still strangle the little shit for running away.” God! Why did it have to be the worse camper to go missing? Well, she knew that Max was prone to escape, but he would always return somehow! So why didn’t he now? Gwen anxieties were already kicked into overdrive, but the more she thought about what could happened to Max, the more her worries got worse. Sure, he wasn’t exactly her favourite camper, but she hoped he was still somewhat safe out there. The two counselors continued their search well into the night, with no luck. They returned to camp to put the remaining kids to bed and get some flashlights from the counselors cabin. Gwen insisted, she wanted to save their phone battery just in case they themselves got lost. After gathering some snacks and water bottles then double checking the campers tents, the counselors somehow convinced the Quartermaster to stay in the camp instead to where he usually slinks off too. Gwen wanted to ask where he goes during the night, but some deep primal fear in her gut told her the less she knew about the QM, the better. Satisfied the kids have some form of supervision, Gwen and Jasper headed off one final search for the night.

Neil waited until he couldn’t hear anymore footsteps. He peeked outside to make sure that the coast was clear, then darted back in his tent. “Alright, it should be safe for us to talk now..” he said quietly. “The lights at the mess hall are on, so the QM must be inside.”

“What do you think he’s doing in there?” questioned Nikki, pulling apart the tent flaps to get a better look. Neil quickly pulled her away. “Who cares about that creep! The real issue is Max! How the hell are we gonna find him!”

They both started pondering. Nikki opened her mouth to say something, but stopped. She then started pacing around, crossing her arms behind her. Suddenly, she raised a finger up in the air triumphantly before having second thoughts, and bringing it down while shaking her head. She walked around some more before, finally, shooting her hand up excitedly, “Oh! Oh! I got an idea!” 

“W-well? What is it?” Neil asked. He was too distracted to think of an idea. Nikki’s pacing threw him off, and he had a feeling Nikki’s head would have exploded if she thought a little harder.

“Alright, so… Max is lost in the woods right?” said Nikki

“Euh...r-right.” replied Neil. Where is she going with this?

“And wolves live in the woods?”

“Yeah….”

“If we can find one, I could talk to them and have them find Max for us!”

“Jesus Christ….” sighed Neil, burying his face in his hands.

“Of course, we need to show them who is the alpha first, but they’ll listen once I’m done with them!” smiled Nikki.

“This isn’t a fucking cartoon, Nikki!” hissed Neil, completely losing his composure. “This is serious! God damn it! I can’t believe I thought you had an actual idea!”

“I was serious” mumbled Nikki, “You’re supposed to be the smart one, what’s your idea?”

“I-I don’t know! This whole thing is freaking me out! I didn’t expect Max to actually get lost in the woods and-and become another statistic in some missing persons list!” Neil let himself crumble into the fetal position on the floor, hugging his skinny legs and letting his head rest on his knees. “God, why did I have to be right!” he whined. Nikki shifted her gaze around the room, trying to avoid Neil’s pathetic display. She, admiralty, wasn’t that good at keeping friends. Once they realise that she was too loud, or wild, they would leave and find someone else. Max and Neil were the only ones who actually didn’t seem to mind her personality. Nikki settled by just sitting next to him and lightly patting his back. “Shame we can’t find David to help look for Max.”

Neil froze. “What did you say?” his voice barely above a whisper.

“That we can’t find Dav-”

“I know what you said.” he interrupted by quickly placing a finger to Nikki’s lips. Beads of cold sweat were forming on Neil’s forehead. He quickly scrambled to his feet and poked his head outside the tent. “How could I forget!” Neil almost growled to himself. 

“Forget what?” asked Nikki, visibly confused. Neil surveyed the campground a little longer, before darting back in. “David! The ghost! The whole reason for this mess!” he babbled.

“Ah, yes! Of course!” Nikki smiled, “I don’t get it…”

Neil sighed, “You know! David, the ‘I’m always watching so don’t even think about escaping camp’ ghost?”

“But, what does he have to do with this?”

“The real questions, is what he didn’t do!”

“Huh?”

Neil took a deep breath. How he wish people could just read his mind so he wouldn’t have to waste so much time explaining. “David wasn’t present at all today!”

Nikki just looked at him “Well, yeah. He’s a ghost and I’m pretty sure he’s just invisible or whatever.”

“True, but he still showed some sort of sign that he was there, even when we can’t see him! Like that weird feeling you get in the back of your neck, or the lights flickering when they shouldn’t.”

Nikki nodded her head a little, or at least she thought she did. It was hard to do anything when Neil was shaking her so hard.

“If David was there, he would have stopped Max as soon as he set foot in the woods, but he didn’t! We were too busy with my glorious experiments to notice David was also missing!

“Soooo… What do we do?” 

Neil grinned, “If we find David, we find Max. I’m willing to bet that son of a bitch has some sort of ghostly tracking powers…” he turned away and mumbled to himself, “... and I am not having Max’s disappearance haunt my conscience for the rest of my life.”

“What was that?” asked Nikki. She suddenly appeared beside him. Neil, of coursed, yelped in response. “N-nothing.” he said while catching his breath. “Let’s make another ouija board, and see if we can talk to David again.”

Nikki squealed in delight, “I’ll get my crayons!”

\---

The early morning sunlight woke Max from his slumber. In his half-awake state, the only thing on his mine was getting his daily morning coffee. He attempted to stretch his aching limbs but the net restricted his movements.

Oh, right… the net. 

He spend the rest of last night struggling and yelling for help until he was too exhausted to move. Max was actually surprise that the tree branch that was holding him up didn’t break at all during his wrestling match with the net. He couldn’t help having mix feelings now. Yes he wanted to get down and be free from the stupid trap, but considering on how high he was, he definitely wouldn’t escape without breaking something. He stared at the tree, lost in thought. He was up here all night and no one found him yet? What a bunch of useless adults. He didn’t expect much from Jasper, it would probably take a week to even notice that he was missing. Gwen was… alright, he supposed, if she wasn’t to busy reading vampire smut to go looking for a missing child. The QM? Well.. to be honest he hoped that he wouldn’t be found by the old man. 

Then there's David. Max honestly thought that he would be captured by the ghostly counselor as soon as he stepped out of bounds of Camp Campbell. He pondered for a moment, where was that stupid ghost anyway? Didn’t he threaten Max he couldn’t escape Camp? Clearly, somebody wasn’t doing their so-called job right.

“Great…” Max grumbled, somebody better come and rescue him soon.

Luckily, he didn’t have to wait long.

Max heard voices behind him in the distance. He tried to turn himself around but just made the net spin in on itself.

“Hello!? Could I get some help here?” he yelled

The voices stopped.

“Gwen? Jasper? Could someone just let me down?”

He could hear the sounds of footsteps now, heading towards him.

Max hesitated “D-David?”

Still no answer, but who or whatever it was, got closer.

“Look, can someone just cut me down from this stupid fucking tree already?”

His question was met with a chuckle below him. Max did his best to maneuver himself to look for the source and was greeted by three boys in brown uniforms.

“Well, well, well, it looks our trap actually caught something for once!” sneered the red-haired boy. “Good work, Snake.”

The boy with the eyepatch simply nodded his head before resuming glaring at Max. Almost like he was trying to see if he was a worthy catch.

“Who the fuck are you?” snarled Max, and the redhead grinned,

“Cedar Scout. First Class, Edward Pikeman. Senior patrol leader of Wood Scout troop 818.” He did a little salute, “My fellow scouts and I are currently performing a very important search and rescue mission.”

“Rescue mission!?” Max yelled, “ You’re the ones responsible for this stupid net trap in the first place! Now let me go! Before I-”

“Tsk-tsk. That is no way to talk to your troop leader now. Is it, initiate?” smiled Edward. Max’s face contorted into visible confusion. “You see, Wood Scout recruitment has been at an all time low recently. If no new members join us, our camp could get shut down. So we set traps down in the woods and perform ‘search and rescue missions’ in hopes that the grateful and rescued camper, would join us and boost our numbers.”

Max blinked several times before answering, “You fucking kidnapped people to join your stupid little camp?”

Edward sighed, “We don’t kidnap, we rescue. But don’t worry, you’ll learn soon enough once we all return to camp.”

“What made you think I’m coming with you?” Max growled.

“What made you think you had a choice?” laughed Edward. He turned to what was the obvious muscle of the group. “Petrol! Lower the net, and make sure he doesn't escape. We can’t afford losing this valuable initiate.” Max was lowered to the ground, but the net was never given enough slack to open up for him to escape. He was thrown over Petrol’s shoulder like a rucksack, and Edward cackled some more, giddy at finally having a new member to train.

Thankfully, the trip to the Wood Scouts camp was short. Getting bounced around on someone’s back was starting to make Max’s tiny body sore. Edward instructed Petrol on something, but Max wasn’t listening anymore. As his “rescuers” were nearing their destination, Max spotted a lake with a familiar dark island in the middle. Seeing Lake Lilac brought a wave a relief over him. After spending and entire day lost in the woods, he was just glad to see something familiar. All he would need to do now is escape the Wood Scouts and follow the lake until he reached Camp Campbell. Max chuckled. He spent most of his time escaping that place, yet here he was, thinking about how great it would be to return to his tent and just sleep this whole thing off. But his daydream was cut short. The picturesque view of the lake was replaced by a wall of cinder blocks, complete with barbed wires surrounding the top. Max looked around the best he could from his confinement on the Wood Scouts back. Rows of brown tents were set up neatly around him, each with numbers crudely painted on the front of the entrance. A lone watchtower protruded from somewhere within the camp, making Max’s stomach drop. Those asshats really are serious about keeping their new “recruits”.

This is going to be a lot harder than it looks.

His captor entered a tent, and judging by the size of it, Max guessed it was their equivalent of a mess hall. Suddenly, Max was turned upside down and shaken out of the net. The unexpected fall knocked the air out of his lungs. He didn’t have time to even scramble to his feet before the huge kid grabbed him by the collar and shoved him into a chair. “OW! What the fuck is wrong with you!” yelled Max. Petrol said nothing. Instead he pulled out a bundle of rope from one of the cabinets and was slowly approaching Max.“You have got to be kidding me.” he snarled. “This is fucked up, I am not letting you tie me to a chair.” He moved to get off the chair, but something poking at his neck stopped him.

“Don’t move.” said the voice. Max tried to turn his head but was greeted with a sharp pain in return. “What did I just say.” Max scowled but complied, and sat still in the chair while Petrol tied him up. Once Max was secured, the sharp object pressing on his neck was removed. “Good, our troop leader will be here any second to talk yo you.” said the voice, finally revealing himself. It was the shortest of the Wood Scouts. The one who went by the name of Snake. He was holding a candy cane in his hand, the tip of which, was sharpened to a point. It didn’t take much for Max to put it together, and he wasn’t sure if should have felt relieved or disgusted at this discovery. Getting his throat sliced by a knife would have been a better death then getting stabbed by someone’s well-used candy cane. “And you guys wonder why you can’t get new members…” he mumbled under his breath. 

A sudden fist to the side of his cheek nearly knocked Max over.

“WHAT THE HELL?!” he screamed, pain was welling up on one side of his face.

“You will speak only when spoken to, new kid.” sneered Snake. “Petrol will make sure that you won’t do any further transgression.”

Max opened his mouth, ready to fire a sarcastic reply, then promptly shut it when Petrol cracked his knuckles. So, he resorted at what he did best, glaring. Glaring until he could practically feel the hatred oozing in the air. The eye contact was only broken when Edward returned holding a pile of folders. “Now. Let’s see who we are dealing with.” he chuckled, and placed the files on a nearby desk. “Would you be so kind as to tell us your name, initiate?”

“Eat shit.” spat Max, before getting punched again. He could taste blood this time.

“Easy, Petrol. We don’t want to damage the new recruit too much, after all, he still needs to participates in our training sessions.” he smirked, and turned to the pile of folders on the desk. “Don’t worry, we’ll find out who you are in a second. This is where our intel gathering will come in handy.”

“Intel…” said Max confused, “Wait, you were spying on us?” 

Edward rolled his eyes,“We weren’t spying! We were simply getting information from every camp for later a use. Now, judging by your yellow shirt, you must be a Camp Campbell Camper, aren’t you?”

Max said nothing, and Edward chuckled. “I’ll take your silence as a yes.” He picked up the yellow folder from the stack and opened it. “According to our records, Camp Campbell currently consist of ten campers and four adults, am I right?”

“Four?” repeated Max, confused. As far as he new, there were only three adults back at camp. They couldn’t know about...

“Yes...four.” said Edward slowly, eyeing Max suspiciously. “Two camp counselors named Jasper and Gwen, one quartermaster whose name remain a mystery, and the founder of the camp, Cameron Campbell. Why? Did we somehow miss someone?” he said, leaning in towards Max. It took every fiber in his being to not say something about Edward Pikeman’s face right now. That boy was hit hard by puberty, and it showed no mercy. “Euh..Nope. You got them all.” he blurted, in an effort to make Edward back off before he could say something he would really regret. Max let the feeling of relief wash over when the older boy returned to look at the file in his hand. He almost forgot about Campbell, the camp's namesake. Fortunately, that meant they didn’t know about David. Why would they? The guy technically didn’t exist. But, maybe he could use this to spook the Wood Scouts somehow, not that it be effective in the first place. He doubted the Wood Scouts actually believed in the supernatural, and even if they did, David wasn’t really that scary of a ghost. Sure he would appear and disappear at the weirdest times, and there was that thing with the Ouija board and the bus, but David never really did anything bad.

“Moving on.” continued Edward. He flipped through the papers until he found the one he wanted. “Ahh! Here we go! The Wood Scouts would like to officially welcome Max to our troop.” he sneered, shoving the paper he was holding to Max’s face. It was an obvious photocopy of his original camp form his parents filled out, along with his picture. It was mostly blank, except for his name, birthday and age. “Wow! Great job not making yourself look like even more of a creep.” replied Max, letting his sarcasm drip on every word to make it painfully obvious. “How did you even get this?”

“A well placed bribe will often get you what we want, Max” said Edward, placing the form back into the folder and returning it to the pile. “Cameron Campbell gladly photocopied this years group of campers and any new employees, for a cut of our yearly popcorn sales.”

“It must have been quite the bribe.” growled Max.

“Believe me, it was. We may have lost 15$, but it was worth it for this kind of info. Now, enough small talk.” Edward spun on his heels to face Max. “You may be one of us, but you still need to prove yourself, initiate!”

“Yeah, sure. You know that I’m just gonna bust out of here as soon as I get the chance, right?”

“Oh, we know.” said Edward, “But we feel that we had enough…’rogue recruits’ to cover all possible escape routes.” He sneered and once again leaned over to Max. “Infact, I would like to see you try.”  
\--

“Well that was a waste of crayons…” yawned Nikki. 

“I still don’t understand what we did wrong…” replied Neil. The two sat in the Mess Hall along with the other campers.Gwen had put on movie to keep them all in one place to make her job supervising the group a lot easier, but fell asleep as soon as the movie started. Not that anyone really blamed her for it. Gwen and Jasper had been out all night looking for Max, and were only forced to returned when dawn was starting to break. They took a short nap before waking the campers up for the day and spilt up. Gwen would watch the kids for the day, while Jasper would continue searching and start asking the other camps around Lake Lilac if they have seen their missing camper.

Nikki and Neil also stayed up all night, for the most part. Nikki had drawn the Ouija board on a piece a paper, and used one of Neil’s empty beakers as the planchette. Both of them were practically screaming and begging for the paper Ouija board to do something, but nothing happened. Eventually, they had to give up and go to bed. Not that they could get any sleep with worry plaguing their minds “Maybe it doesn’t work well with paper.” said Nikki.

“No, I don’t think so...” Neil pondered, “Because if that was the case, then the baking pan Ouija wouldn't of worked…” They both sat in silence. The tv, and Gwen’s quiet snoring, were the only sounds filling the room. “Maybe it only works in the Mess Hall?” suggested Nikki.

“W-what? W-why would it not work anywhere else?”

Nikki shrugged. “I don’t know. The ghost shows that I watch said that the spirits sometimes manifest better in a place that is familiar to them.”

Neil open his mouth to argue but promptly shut it. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he wasn’t exactly the expert on the subject...yet. He didn’t know how much of the information from those quacks on those ghost hunting shows was true, but they needed a starting point. Max wasn’t going to rescue himself. “Oh, what the hell. Let’s give it another shot.”

“Should we start now?” said Nikki excitedly. To Neil surprises, she took out the paper Ouija board from her front pocket and was unfolding it on her legs.

“No way!” hushed Neil, “If Gwen sees what we are doing, she going to kill us!”

“Then how about we just sneak in at night again?” suggested Nikki.

“We can’t wait that long! Besides, the Quartermaster will probably be guarding the Mess Hall again. No, we need to get everyone out of here… and I have an idea.”

It was simple really. After the movie was over, Nikki begged Gwen to go play outside, much to the counselors dismay. She, of course, understandably refused. But when Nikki and even the other campers made it clear that they weren’t going to binge watch her trashy movies all day, Gwen relented. However, she made the campers swear that they wouldn’t wander out of sight, or so help her, she will drop kick every single camper, and force them to watch her trashiest rom-coms movies. The campers nervously agreed. Except for Neil and Nikki, who, taking advantage of Gwen’s sleep deprived state, easily snuck in back into the Mess Hall once everyone was outside. “Here’s a good spot!” said Nikki, laying down the paper Ouija board on the floor. 

“W-would it work? I mean, in the light?” nervously asked Neil, slowly shutting the door behind him. “Because going off on what we know on ectoplasm, it appears better in the dark, and, well, David is made of the stuff…” Even with the lights off, the room was well lit. They couldn’t exactly close the curtains on the windows, since there weren’t any and there wasn’t anything they could use to cover them with.

“Then let’s use the attic!”

“Attic?” Neil repeated.

“Yeah up there! I always wanted to see what was in it!” Nikki pointed to a hatch on the ceiling. Neil never noticed it before, it blended well with the wood and the only thing giving it away was a thin string to pull it open.

“Nikki, that’s perfect!” Neil exclaimed. His smile faded when he noticed that the string was far too high for them to grab. “Maybe we could stack up chairs, or you could give me a boost up...” he mumbled.

“Fuck that noise! I have a better idea. I always wanted to try this!” Nikki ran up to the wall and gave it a good, hard kick. She eagerly looked up to the attic hatch and waited with a grin on her face, but nothing happened.

“Uh… was that supposed to do-”

“Wait, wait.” Nikki gave another kick, this time a little bit to the left. The hatch dropped open along with a ladder. “There we go!” she smiled.

“I’m...not gonna bother wondering how that worked.” said Neil. The two of them climbed over the ladder and into the dusty attic. The small, dark room was filled to the brim with boxes and old filing cabinets, but what really caught Neil’s eye was the antique desk in the back of the room. It was clear to him that someone was using this place as a private study at some point. He hopped on the old swivel chair, wich let out a squeak at the sudden weight on it, and examine the pile of books littering the desktop. Despite the low amount of light he managed to see that every single one of them was written in a different language. There was chinese, german, french, spanish, and even russian books, but none of them really gave an idea what they were about. “Hey, Neil!” cried Nikki, snapping Neil out of his trance for a brief second, “Are we doing this or what?”

“G-give me a second.” he answered over his shoulder. He shuffled some books around, trying to find one that was in english, and finally spotted one hidden among the others. Neil quickly snatched the book and returned to Nikki’s side. “What have you got there?” she asked, noticing Neil cradling something.

“Just some light reading for later.” he quickly dismissed. He sat down in front of her, “R-ready to try again?” he asked nervously. 

“You bet!” Nikki beamed. She pulled out the beaker from her pocket and placed gently on the paper and the two campers placed their fingers on the glass. Nikki cleared her throat in preparation to say the summoning words. She has no clue if they actually did anything, but damn, it made her feel really cool. She took a deep breath, and opened her mouth.

“What are you kids doing up here!” said a familiar voice.

Neil screamed and attempted to scramble over the rows of boxes for cover. Nikki however, was only mildly surprised. “David? How did you know we were summoning you?” she said, feeling a little disappointed. She really wanted to say the magic words.

“Summoning me?” said David, taken aback by the odd question. He was halfway up the ladder, with one hand holding on to it for support and the other hand to his hip. “No, I just noticed that you three weren’t outside with the others and came to investigate.”

“Three of us? But Max is-”

David raised his hand, “But nothing.” he interrupted, “Honestly, I expected better from you kids. The attic is strictly forbidden to campers!”

“Wait, why is that?” asked Neil, poking his head from behind some boxes once he realized there was no real danger.

“Because, this is Mr. Campbell private study! He told me no one should ever set foot up here.” he turned to look behind him, as if expecting the camp founder to be there. “Even I’m not allowed up here! Now come on, let’s join the others outside.”

“But, Max…” tried Nikki again, but David just shook his head. “I don’t want to hear anymore buts! Now, come on. Everyone down the ladder.” He waited at the bottom, watching the two campers climb down with crossed arms. His ghostly appearance more apparent now in the light. Neil and Nikki had to almost concentrate on just looking at the counselor to bring him into focus. David shut the attic hatched after them and turned around to address the troublemakers. He opened his mouth to say something but the words were caught in his throat. Only now did he realized that a peculiar camper was missing.

“Wait….Where’s Max?”

Nikki and Neil gave each other a worried glance. Maybe getting David to find Max wasn’t a good idea if it took him him this long to figure out there was a problem. When the kids didn’t answer right away, David scrambled to reopen the hatch. 

“He isn’t up there…” said Neil flatly. He was surprised how he could practically feel his anger and frustration slowly creeping up in his veins. “You would know that, if you were here yesterday.” he accused. 

David’s eyes went wide with shock. “W-what do you mean?” he quivered.

“Euh..Max is missing since yesterday…” mumbled Nikki.

A quiet “What?” escaped David’s lips. Nikki didn’t think it was possible to see a ghost going pale as...well...a ghost, but the colours were visibly draining from David’s face. “How?” he asked finally after a few painful moment of silence.

Neil could feel his eyes burning as emotions poured out. “Max disappeared alright! We had a fight and he- he just...took off in the woods, and hasn’t come back!” he wailed. “Where the hell were you?!”

David looked flustered, his eyes avoiding theirs. Nikki didn’t think she would ever see a ghost visibly sweating. “I..euh….Well….you see…” he babbled, before finally taking a deep breath. “I….overslept…”

“You overslept?!” repeated Neil, slowly. He couldn’t believe he was nearly crying after that. “How the hell did you oversleep?!”

David looked down at his feet. He looked like a kid who got caught with his hands in the cookie jar. “After I found you kids in the Mess Hall the other night...I just felt so...drained… That strange dizzy spell I had just sapped the energy right out of me. I could barely make it back to my room awake!”

Nikki and Neil stared at each other. Crap, so the scéance was the real reason of David’s absence that day. Thinking back, the Ouija board must of used his ghostly energy to, not only move the planchette around, but put him in this hypnotic state to answer the questions. This was something Neil needed to research later. He’ll definitely need to start a experi-

Wait...did David say room? He has a room? In camp? Here? Where the hell does he stay? His line of questioning was halted by a pair of cold hands grasping his shoulders. "I swear," said the counselor in a serious tone, "I'll get Max back at camp safe and sound. I promise." Neil tried to maintain eye contact but couldn't help himself to look away. Could he really trust this man? "You better." he sighed, not even realizing that he was holding his breath. David quickly got up and headed towards the door, "You kids stay here, I'll start searching the woods and…"

"Whoooaa, whoa!" Interrupted Nikki, raising her hands. "We're not staying here! We're going with you!" Crossing her arms in defiance.

"Kids, I know you're worried but-"

"But nothing! We waited around all night for the adults to find him and they didn’t. Clearly you need our help to find Max."

Neil could have sworn that there were little tears forming in David's eyes, as if touched by Nikki’s pleas to find her missing friend. The ghost sniffled, and quickly regained his composure. "Alright, just please, stay as close to me as you can. We don't want anymore lost campers." David pushed open the doors to let Nikki and Neil through. With a fist clenched and a look of pure determination on his face, David smiled “Let’s go find Max!”


End file.
